lots of fun adventures!!

My life has been so full of fun activities lately!! :) I have been so blessed to be attending all kinds of events in the Seattle area lately. I saw the show, Wicked, with some friends of mine--which was AMAZING. Then a couple days later, I went to a Sounders game with some other friends, which was SUPER fun. Later, I went to see Ben Harper & Pearl Jam in concert with another friend in the Key Arena which was RAD. The best part about all of these events is that someone else was supposed to go originally, and then I was called at the last minute to "fill-in"--getting to take advantage of an extra ticket. Thank you to all of you, friends, who have been so generous this past week!! :) I almost forgot to mention that Marcus, Tad, Jim, Carol, and I had a killer "jam session" at our house playing the new "Beatles Rock Band." It was awesome to see my mother-in-law playing a plastic guitar while my father-in-law was trying to pelt out the words to "I Am the Walrus." Yes, they are LOVING being retired, and yes, I took pictures. However, I think if I posted them, I'm not sure we'd ever get them to come over again. Just know they had fun. :)

The past few days in Sammamish, the weather has been awesome, and Marcus has had several days in a row off, so we thought we'd embrace the sunshine by heading to the mountains for another hiking adventure. We threw stuff in our backpacks and headed for an overnight trip to Gem Lake. (pictured below.)

It was a pretty uneventful trip, all in all, which in my world is fantastic!! There were no insane log crossings, no rock climbing sections, and no near-fainting episodes. However, I did throw up twice, sadly breaking a 4-day puke-free streak. Below is a picture of me at the beginning of the hike.

Oh, I almost forgot the man-size bug that we saw when we were about to leave. We had just finished packing all of our stuff up, Marcus was about to close his pack, and we saw this HUGE and disgusting monster sitting on the top of Marcus' pack. We immediately grabbed the camera, to photograph the removal of the bug, hoping (and praying) that the bug would not fall inside the pack. I might have let out a girly shreik, worried that it would fly when Marcus poked it with a stick. Little did I know, it was hugely fat, and could barely hop it was so heavy. :) I'll include a photo for your viewing pleasure.

After much discussion, I've decided that I'm going to try not to keep track of days in a row that I don't throw up because I just get disappointed when I start throwing up again. Marcus suggested that I celebrate each puke-free day individually, enjoying the increased energy and day of fun for what it is; and then start over being thankful the next morning again. Hopefully I will get to keep being thankful a zillion days in a row, but I just won't be thinking about "breaking a new record". I'll let you know how my new thought process goes.

Have a wonderful week!

p.s.

Side Note from God: do not get ahead of yourself. I'm right here. I've brought you this far, why do you think I'd abandon you now?!

As I have been re-organizing my bathroom cabinets this morning, I had an overwhelming surge of thankfulness that I no longer have to use a picc line to survive. It is easy for me to get ahead of myself, caught up in the things that I want and worried about how things will get taken care of in the future... Right now, in this moment, I remember and celebrate that I am not dependant on a picc line to get my fluids--I can simply drink water or gatorade or delicious iced tea from Cheesecake Factory (my fav) and most of the time it even stays down! :)

Thanks God, for these simple gifts--that I so often take for granted.
Amen.

the heavy metal water strikes again.

Some of you may remember my miraculous healing which occurred roughly around the same time as my consumption of the "heavy metal water," which I drank after a ridiculously strenuous hike into Glacier Basin. (you can see the post on July 21 for more information)

Anyway, after seeing the GI doctor this past week for my nausea and vomiting which has returned and gotten worse again...it seems that my heavy metal water might have had some legitimate restorative effects after all. The doc ran some blood tests, and it turns out that I am low in zinc. I start my new supplements tonight. I'm also starting some more new meds that are working on restoring my mast cells... hoping to decrease the inflammation in the bowel, decreasing the pain overall, and hopefully, in turn, eliminating the vomiting. I appreciate that Dr. Schneier never runs out of ideas. :)

As for other activities, I'm beginning a new bible study tomorrow morning--the study of Luke. I'm excited to be discussing the bible in a group of women again. And a couple other women & I are leading a group of 10th grade girls in Bible study on Sunday nights too. That just started up last week, and will be a lot of fun as well. I'm doing some tutoring on the side that will start up this next week--and will get my brain going too.

Please pray for immediate healing. Pray for clarity in the road that God would have us walk down. In the midst of all this, our desire is to start a family. Please pray that my body might be restored completely, that we might be able to conceive a child, and that Gdo would protect me and that healthy child during a safe and easy pregnancy.

Thank you all for your love and support.
brelin

things that make you go hmmmmmm.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that my vomiting started up again, and was pretty rough for the past several weeks. I sort of felt like a disappointment, like I was somehow a failure to my blogging community--so I didn't want to write about it right away. I've been so excited to report my good news about being a digester, and I didn't want to let you all down again.

The good news is that it seems that I may have stalled long enough for the vomiting to have worked itself out again. This is my 4th day of being puke-free in a row! Yay!! :) Hopefully, I'm back on a tremendous digesting streak. I'll have to keep you posted. I go see the doc again tomorrow.

The same old news is that still the docs have no real understanding of WHY the nausea/vomiting comes and goes. Or what makes causes my miraculous moments of health (besides a miracle of God, of course.) Unfortunately, the docs have a hard time writing a prescription for those and are not able to call those directly into Bartell's Pharmacy. :)

Anyway, I'm going to try and play soccer tomorrow... since my health has been so outstanding for half a week already. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes.

Also, for those of you keeping track--yesterday was my 2 year puking anniversary. 9/7/07 was the day that the vomiting all began. (and, I didn't throw up the whole day! Thank you, Jesus!!)

Okay, tons of hugs to you all... and more about all of my fun adventures later.
brelin