Jonathan found this new nifty free tool (Photo Story 3) a few weeks ago, and I used it to make a video of our chapel picnic. Unfortunately, Blogger didn’t like it, and I was unable to get it to load on the blog. So today, I broke down and make a youtube account so that I could post my video here on my blog. The quality is not as high as on the original, but it’s passable. Hope you enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCZaGRYVuSs&hl=en&fs=1]

Wow. I need this one over and over. Thanks!

Yesterday, I turned 35. Amazing.

I actually have felt like a good portion of the last week has been my birthday celebration. It is such a treat to have Papa, Mama, Beka, and the Byrd Blessings here. And I love birthdays with Beka – because I love her, of course, and because in her family, when it’s your birthday, you’re Queen (or King) for the day, and so the preceding days are spattered with birthday planning. So fun!

So, yesterday morning I woke up, got dressed, and walked out my bedroom door. Miss Chloe greeted me with, “Elle! Baby!” Which, being interpreted, is “Aunt Elle, you need to get your baby!” Before I went obediently to fetch Stephen, I noticed several boxes on the couch. Papa and Mama’s computer had arrived. But I wondered what computer parts would have been packed in such a long box. See what I mean?

A few minutes later, someone asked if I had noticed that one of those boxes was for me. Lo and behold, upon further inspection . .


My dear friend Shawna had sent me these beautiful sunflowers. I love them! It was a wonderful start to the day. Thank you, sweet Shawna!

We had decided to go to Meramac State Park for most of the day. Mama and Beka (and me a bit) had done most of the prep work for dinner the night before, so we had plenty of time. So we picked up some KFC for lunch and headed to the Park.

First we visited Sheep Cave. It’s a fun cave that is open to the public (no fees, no guide required). It’s not very large, but it’s especially great for the kiddos.

Here are the cousins just inside (plus Aunt Elle, who didn’t want to take Stephen out of his wrap):

A look back at the mouth:

The children exploring near the rear of the cave:

And returning to the entrance:

Boys:

Sweet Cousins:

Silly Cousins:

We moved to our favorite pavillion for lunch:

And then went down to play in the river!

We came home and had a fabulous dinner/party with some beloved folks:

That’s a lot of candles (and I got them all in one shot!):

There was also an amazing amount of loot, and even better, lots of laughs and love. We finished things off with a fun game of Quiddler with both sets of our folks.

There were some dear ones that I sorely missed, but it was a terrific day. Much more terrific than pictures and words can tell. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sharing the day with me!

A great post from a mom of 9 about how little she knows about parenting. Terrific and convicting!

There are so many posts swirling in my head that I could or should write…

I should tell you about my first trip to the Muny with my dear friend Tracy.
I should give you the latest on Katie Bloom, in case you’re not checking her progress blog.
I should entreat you to pray for a wonderful friend of mine who needs lots of prayer that God would show her favor and be glorified in the trial she’s going through.
I should urge you to pray for two precious beloved people who desperately need God to work a miracle in their life.
I could tell you how the bottom fell out of a part of my world when I was confronted in a heartbreaking way with the fact that people near and dear to me are every bit as much in need of God’s grace and sanctification as I am.
I should post pictures (that I should have taken) of our wonderful visit with family – Papa and Mama, Beka and “the cousins” have arrived and we LOVE having them!
I should tell you about the fact that my in-laws have gone, in the space of a month and a half, from having no pets to having a chihuahua and a collie.

But you know what…
We don’t have company in the house this morning.
It’s been a doozey of a week.
I am exhausted.
And so…
I am settling my Blessings in for some quiet reading time,
And I am Taking a Nap.

God’s Purposes and Our Pain – a terrific post by John Piper about why God doesn’t fully explain pain. This spoke to me on many levels, one of which concerns our friends the Blooms and Clarksons.

And speaking of the Blooms, here is the new link for the devoted-to-Katie’s-progress blog. Please add it to your blog reader/rss feed and keep Katie and her wonderful family in your prayers!

From the official source of news on the progress of our friend Katie Bloom:

from davey – 11:45am
Just got this message from Davey:

“We had our little Sawyer on Tuesday, the 8th, and were allowed to go home on the 9th because things were going so well. Over the next week things were normal until this last Wednesday. If you know Katie, headaches are a consistent part of life, so when she began to complain of a headache we were not overly concerned. Her doctor prescribed some heavy painkillers for her (over the phone). After these really didn’t have much effect, she went in to see him and he prescribed some other pain meds to deal with the increasing pain and stiffness in her neck. As a precaution Dr wanted her to get a CT scan at Methodist. She went in Thursday afternoon and the CT scan came back clear so she went home. I picked up the new meds for her later that afternoon and she began to take them.

However, around 10pm she woke me up and said something is really wrong. Most of you know, Katie has a very high pain tolerance. I’ve seen her take a kidney stone before, but this was different. Katie’s vision was blurring and she was in intense pain. I rushed her to the ER where they got her in right away and the first thing they did was try to deal with the pain. So basically they started pumping her full of narcotics which did help some with the pain, but did not take it all away.

She started throwing up and her vision continued to blur. In about two hours she slowly drifted off to sleep, which we all assumed was a good thing as she was finally peaceful. An emergency room Dr came to see her after a little while and was concerned that he couldn’t get her to wake up. He told me that this is not a drug induced sleep but rather a very deep coma, and he immediately ordered another CT scan. This one was bad. He immediately called in the Neurosurgeon for a consult.

She came in within 30 minutes and after reviewing the CT scan basically gave me two options. 1) let her pass away, 2) do surgery. The Neurosurgeon warned us that even if the surgery was successful in keeping her alive, it would not alter any brain damage that has surly happened. We obviously opted for the surgery which began around 5:30am.

The surgery lasted until about 9:30am and she was then moved to a recovery room as there was no room in the ICU wing. The neurosurgen informed us that the surgery went very well, but still did not give us any hope that she would ultimately recover. However, as Katie began to come out of the anesthetic there was immediately some very good signs. She was responsive to some voice stimulation (i.e.. squeeze my hand Katie, move your toes). In a few hours she was moved to ICU where she is as of now (11:30 Saturday am).

The good news is that Katie continues to advance in all areas. She as said a few words, has kissed my hand, as good strength in her hands and legs (in fact she actually pulled the intubation tubes out of her nose and mouth). She has partially opened her eyes, but that continues to be a concern. The surgeon who initially worked on Katie was in Friday night and was very pleased.

All of this is good, but we still have no real direction regarding the issues in the brain (i.e.. cause of bleeding). However, it really doesn’t matter what the issues are as God is at work and is presently healing Katie. Please continue to pray believing prayers as God loves to honor the faith of his children. Hope this helps to put things in perspective and help with any rumors that may be out there. “

This is the blog of a friend of Katie’s there in Iowa.

Here’s her latest post:

hey all, this verse comes to me as i type this update: “the prayer of a
righteous man is powerful & effective”. i don’t even know where it’s
found…

i just rec’d a quick call from Rob’s wife, Ami & she said that while
Davey was in the room, Katie sat up, pulled out her breathing tube & said
“yes”. Although she is still not out of the coma, this is tremendous progress!
Praise God!

i just looked on biblegateway.com & this is the entire verse &
reference…
James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each
other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

oh man, do i have Holy Spirit chills right now! continue to pray, warriors
of the faith! our God hears & answers the prayers of His children.

i also just got off the phone with a friend and she said, “i bet the
doctors & nurses didn’t think they would get that news today after what
happened this morning!”

the most powerful thing we can do as children of God is to pray &
petition God for our sister, Katie. thank you all!

Things about my 13 month old son which delight me…