Sweet Shabbat Rest!

Shabbat...what a blessing to be able to rest in the Messiah! Last night, we enjoyed our usual bagels and peppermint mocha for our Erev Shabbat Meal. Afterwards, Daddy shared from Isaiah 11 the 7 attributes of YHVH as explained there and demonstrated on the Menorah. Those attributes are 1. YHVH/Yeshua; 2. Wisdom; 3. Understanding; 4. Counsel/Advice; 5. Power/Might; 6. Knowledge/Awareness; and 7. Fear/Reverence. Then, we listened to Monte Judah, and interestingly enough some of the points that he brought out went right along with our earlier discussion. This morning, we listened to Eddie's 5 minute update as well as his teaching on What the Rabbis Say about the Messiah, Part 1. After lunch, we went up to see Nana at the nursing home/rehab center. And finally, we ended the Shabbat with listening to Mike Clayton teach on the Torah Portion.

Nana is doing better today. We take it one day at a time. She has a UTI and a swollen lymph node on top of everything else with the stroke. The antibiotics seem to be kicking in, and she noticeably improved from yesterday to today. To all those praying, thank you and please continue to do so! Gaga got bronchitis on top of this all, had to go to the doctor on Tuesday for an antibiotic, and is now feeling better. It seems like this week it has poured in the health area.

Work has kept me quite busy...but I'm very excited about the progress we are making. Getting new projects started...organizing current items...loads of phone calls...and meetings too. Plus working with Eddie some more. :) I had lunch with a very good friend on Thursday. I always enjoy it when he and I are able to meet. I even got a little bit of scrapbooking in too!

My Favorite Magazine...

Please check out my favorite magazine - Yavoh - at http://lionlamb.net/v3/YAVOHHeisComing/2010/02. This month's article on the "Road to Jerusalem" is very good.

Prayer Update and Excitement!

Update on my grandma: We are so glad we moved her! Her primary care physician is always really good to work with. He has gotten her pain medication under control as they were over medicating her at the previous place to the point that she couldn’t even tell me what was on TV right in front of her. She looks better and is more alert, and she’s getting 2-3 hours of therapy a day between speech, physical, and occupational. We did get a scare on Sunday as she was bleeding, and we were not sure if it was hemorrhoids or internal bleeding. The doctor and nurses were concerned that it was internal bleeding and planned on doing a hospital transport; however, Praise be to Yah, the nurse was able after continuing to work with Nana (my grandma) to get the bleeding under control. They are continuing to watch her closely, and we all know WHO really got the bleeding under control. :) Please continue to pray. Also, on top of this, my Gaga (grandfather) has bronchitus! Please pray for him.

The highlight of this past week was going live on the websites for Eddie Chumney of Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int'l. We had been working on them for about a year now and were thrilled to finish them. You can see the video of us "going live" on Shabbat at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4871477. We redid his current site (http://www.hebroots.com/ and http://www.hebroots.org/), added a blog site about the 5 Minute Update (http://www.watchmanofzion.com/), added his personal site about his travel and speaking (http://www.eddiechumney.com/), started video streaming our services, and got him on Facebook and Twitter. People were shocked. This is the guy who hadn’t updated his website since 1998 and didn’t answer e-mails! :) So it was really neat to bring him up to date. Plus Eddie is so much fun to work with!

Work has been going well. This past week was a lot of changes, but overall, I'm really excited about the direction Money Map Coaching is headed. We are getting a few new systems in place which has taken a lot of my attention, but the results of volunteers being able to serve more people is well worth it.

I also had a meeting about doing a couple's wedding cake. I really enjoy teaching as well as doing cakes, so I always enjoy helping a couple dream for their wedding and see their dreams fulfilled.

I'll close with a couple of pictures from going live this weekend.

Eddie teaching on video now!

Two happy campers!

What's My Surprise?

I've been sharing on my Facebook that I'm excited about a surprise coming up very soon and people have been having fun guessing what I'm up to. Would you too like to guess? Put your guess in the comments section.

Funny Zingers

Some funny "Zingers" in light of the snow...

Autos did away with horses; now the autos seem to try and do away with people.

The best thinkers on their feet are pedestrians.

Often the more horsepower in the car, the less horse sense in the driver.

My Week...

This week, we got another 6" of snow on top of our already 16+" on the ground. Whew! What a lot of white stuff! We did get to have snow cream a couple more times which was very nice. I was telling Mommy that I was ready for Spring, and she graciously reminded me that Spring = weeds. So I decided that I'd keep the snow and just take clean roads. :)

I did attend part of a conference representing Crown and got to meet one of our most experienced trainers, Tom Wells. He and I have enjoyed working together over the phone and e-mail, and it was great to finally meet in person! Here we are together...

Thank you to all who have sent e-mails and called about my grandma. Your love and concern has meant so much. She is stable right now, but she has been having quite a bit of pain in the feeding tube area (stomach) which is very concerning. At one point last night, she wasn't allowing them to feed her or give her medication through the tube. They did an x-ray, and it came back okay. We are honestly not sure at times how this whole medical situation is going to turn out. Please pray for the Father's shalom (peace) to be with us especially my mom. We continue to pray for my grandma's healing and trust the Father. Also, my grandfather has had some flare up of Alzheimer's symptoms which is difficult. As they so aptly put at the conference I attended a portion of, the Father will take us beyond our logic/reasoning but never beyond our faith.

Letter from The Boss - Funny Forward

This forward was too funny...

LETTER FROM THE BOSS
Subject: Fairness in Layoffs

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change, I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic. Have a wonderful day!

Snowed in!!!!

We are snowed in with 16+" of snow right now! Yes, I said 16+ inches!!! Interestingly enough, north of us has about a foot, so we got more! :) Below are some pictures of all the snow...

Showing off the snow up to 20" on the yardstick.

The trees all snow covered between our house and our neighbor's.

Our barn/garage all snow covered. See it's even sliding off the roof.

The ring you can barely see is our fire ring which is 14" tall and very easily visible in good weather. My dad had a hard time finding it today!

Our cars are going to be fun to dig out!

In the midst of all this, they transported my Nana from the hospital at 7:30pm yesterday to the rehab center. We couldn't believe it, but no matter what we said, that's when they were going to do it. By that point, we already had 10" of snow and could not get to the hospital. We are also on a Level 2 snow emergency which means that the police don't want you out on the roads unless absolutely you have to be. So we have been on the phone a lot checking on her and making sure she is okay. She did safely arrive and get settled in.

Now, get this...here's the interesting part of the story. We had picked a place about 3 miles from my grandfather. It was a new place and seemed nice; however, the social worker delayed in sending our paperwork in. By the time she did that, there were no spots open even though there had been plenty the day before. They had gotten inundated due to many discharges from the hospitals in preparation for the snow storm. So we had to scramble to find a new rehab place. We had a place called The Wexner Heritage House highly recommended to us. It's not only a top quality rehab place, but also the ONLY Jewish rehab center in our area. They are Jewish owned and run but interdenominational in who they serve. They told us it's nearly impossible to get in there. Well, I went ahead and called. The lady in admissions said they usually don't have any spots available, but they "happened" to have two people who were due to come in this weekend bumped to later next week...so they had 2 beds open. I couldn't believe it, so we were able to get my grandma in there. This will be interesting for us to experience and be right in the middle of the Jewish Community with us going back to our Hebrew Roots. There is even a Kosher Market about 5 miles from the rehab center.

Today is Mommy's birthday, so we enjoyed our normal Shabbat morning of listening to Eddie. We are all snowed in, so it was just Eddie running the show from home. Three of us logged in from home and helped admin. Eddie asked me for my vote for which recorded teaching to play after the live things, and I picked the 7,000 Year Plan of Yah. Oh, that sounds like a good teaching...I haven't heard it before. He did an hour and a half 5 minute update (explaining the news events of the week through Biblical prophecy and Hebraic understanding) then he did a live Q&A for about 2 hours. It was about 2pm when we wrapped up. He then replayed the 5 minute update and played the teaching.

We had lunch of cream of broccoli soup with cheese and crackers and pickles. Then we had cherry cheesecake for dessert in honor of Mommy's birthday. She has yet to open her presents as she's on the phone enjoying catching up with "Aunt" Deborah. :) So I can't tell what they are yet. Shhhhhhhhh!

Shabbat shalom ya'll!

What's Normal?

What began as a normal week quickly became not normal. Sunday, I went to town to do a bit of shopping for Momma's birthday which is on Shabbat (the 6th). I got home, we got a few things done as a family and then that evening I was enjoying instant messaging with a friend. My cell phone went off about 11pm, and it was the Assisted Living where my grandparents live. My Nana had not been feeling well since Wednesday, but we were thinking it was a medication mix up. Then on Friday, she was diagnosed with a UTI which can cause some of the symptoms she was experiencing (light confusion, shakiness, slurred voice, etc). Saturday night, she fell on top of this all. However, by Sunday night, her arm was going numb and her mouth was drawing up. So by then we knew it was a stroke. My mom and I jumped in the car and raced to the ER; my dad raced to be with my grandfather during this time. We were there with her in the ER from shortly after 11pm till about 6am. They did a CAT Scan, Urinalysis, and Blood Work. The Urinalysis and Blood Work came back fine; however, the CAT Scan showed “old mini strokes” which basically means they are not active currently. They scheduled an MRI for the next day as well as further testing and got her a room in the Stoke Unit at Riverside Hospital. After seeing that she was settled in about 6am on Monday morning, we went home and got about 4 hours of sleep and headed back to the hospital after making sure the animals at home were taken care of (the cow still has to be milked in the midst of all this!).

The MRI on Monday confirmed that my Nana (Lee) had a stroke. She is mostly affected in her swallowing, speech, and right side. She did not pass the swallowing test which means that she was aspirating food into her lungs. As a result, they planned to put in a feeding tube which was done today. She will also need skilled care and therapy for 6 - 10 weeks, so we are planning on discharge to a nursing home. We also are arranging some changes in my grandfather’s (Bud) care as he will need more care in assisted living with my grandma not being with him.

After the feeding tube was put in today, she seem to be feeling better and knowing that she can now get nourishment, definitely puts a bright spot back in place. She has not been able to eat since Sunday night. This has been a crazy week in between taking care of things at home, being with Nana, making sure she is receiving the care she needs and deserves, making sure Gaga is okay, and keeping up with work as best as possible.

We decided to take my grandfather back to the Assisted Living each night in order to maintain his routine for him which is key for people with Alzheimer's. My dad volunteered to spend the night with him and did so from Sunday night until last night. Then he would get up and make sure he was taken care of in the morning, come home and milk the cow, get a few things done at home, be at the hospital with us, milk the cow in the evening, and go back with Gaga at night. He was so willing to serve and be a blessing. Tonight is the first night that he won't be with him as we have a snowstorm coming in and need Daddy here at home with us. However, he is still gone right now making sure Gaga is okay tonight as well as taking Nana some clothes in case she is discharged before we can get to her. They could go ahead and discharge her and take her by medical transport as planned on Saturday, and with the 4-8" of snow we are supposed to get tomorrow morning thru Saturday morning, travel might be treacherous. We might not be able to get to the hospital...we pray not. As Timothy so wisely put, "Jocelin, there aren't many men like your Father. You are going to be hard pressed to find a young man like him." But I expect Him to be just like my Daddy!

We have received so many sweet notes as well as calls...and the prayer warriors have been a HUGE blessing! Beau called while we were in the ER as he knew what was going on, and he and his mom got the Messianic prayer groups activated immediately. Donna got the B'nai Shalom (Monte's Congregation) Prayer Team activated...and Dr. Scotty who leads that group has been keeping in touch. So many co-workers from Crown have e-mailed. My boss, John, got my key coaches praying right after I called him on our way to the hospital. My two closest girlfriends, Ellie and Maria, have been praying and they and their families keeping in touch. My coaches who I had appointments with this week after seeing the prayer request, e-mailed me to let me know they wanted me to reschedule for sometime after the crisis was past, and they didn't expect me to keep the appointment this week. That was so thoughtful! Then a friend from the Mennonite church, Carolyn, came by for a surprise visit at the hospital. Her hugs were such a blessing and encouragement when we needed them. Then other special friends - Dean, Linda, and John E - keeping in touch and many who I'm not naming.

It has been interesting to see that some of those we would have "expected" to be supportive haven't been, but support has come from some very unexpected avenues. Yahweh has truly given us the grace and mercy we needed to get through this. I never would have thought I could have survived on 4 hours of sleep for a 40 hour period, but I did! It has also made us realize that when we know someone who has a loved one in the hospital some things that we could do such as pray, call them every day or two, go visit them and their loved one, fix a meal, take care of their animals, etc.

As we find a new normal and adjust to what life is like now, I praise Yah that in the midst of the storms of life He never changes!!!! Halleluyah!