I Haven't Forgotten...

...about the blog!!! :) I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying lovely spring weather. We need to remember to pray for those in the south who are suffering total devestation from horrible storms and tornadoes this past week. We are very saddened by all of that.

We are doing well for the most part, other than trying to get over some sickness. People seem to be getting better though, so that's a blessing!

We've been doing a lot of garden work lately -so hopefully the Lord will bless our labors! Today, I also got three new bee hives, so I'm excited about that. I'm trying to make sure I'm prepared for the busy summer bee season. I can't wait for harvest!!! (I know, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. :)

I wanted to let you know though that I have several posts that I'm looking forward to doing, but unfortunately, our Internet is currently not working (I'm using a different source right now), so I'll have to wait until we get it working again.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop in and say "hello" and I haven't forgotten about posting! Hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon! :)

God Bless You,

-Savannah

A Good Quote

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

-Ronald Reagan

My Tilt Table Test

A few weeks ago, I had a tilt table test in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital.  My cardiologist had us do the test to help us solidify what exactly has been going on and it was really nice to be able to finally "tie a ribbon" on things (for more of my story see here).  The blessing is that my heart is perfectly fine.  The down side is that (to put it simply) my body no longer copes with gravity well (yes, I know that's a problem! :)  When I'm up and around, my blood pools in my legs because my brain is not sending the proper signals to keep it where it needs to be.  You can understand how this can cause a whole range of problems!!!  Something else we learned is that I don't have enough electrolytes in my body to help with keeping my fluids in (even though I drink tons of water), which in turn doesn't keep my blood where it needs to be.  So then my blood pressure ends up dropping and I feel really awful! :)  As the gentleman at the tilt test suggested, I've drastically increased my salt intake (more than I already had) and have been drinking a lot of gatorade (we found a healthy solution :). I also have a really interesting tilt exercise to do that basically puts me in the same position I was in during the test - this should hopefully help to re-train my body to cope properly with gravity.  

The blessing is that the past few weeks I've noticed a big improvement and have been feeling much better - which is so very nice!!!  I'm also excited because Lord-willing I believe I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and should be feeling all of the way better within several more months.  

On to a few pictures and a little more of the story of the day...

We were going to go to the city as a family, but because of some pressing issues at home (the water leak being the main issue) mommy and I ended up going just the two of us.  We had such a fun time together (we'd never really done anything like that before) and really enjoyed running different errands around the Edmund area!!!  It was such a special time!!!  I didn't feel very great that day, but the fun we had really took my mind off of it - I hardly even noticed that I felt bad - I just had too much fun!!! :)  

Me and the gentleman that did my test. 

(this is after the test was over)

The test was very interesting.  I was on the tilt table, strapped to it in several places, hooked up to several monitors, and then I was tilted up to almost standing at  about a 15 degree angle back.  At about the 1/2 hour point, my blood pressure dropped very low, I felt really sick, and I passed out!!!  That was probably one of worst times I've felt in my life!  About a minute after he laid the table back down I came back around.  The gentleman told us there was a good possibility that I'd pass out, but I really didn't think I would because I never had before (what I did realize after the test though is how close I've come on numerous occasions over the past couple of years to passing out and haven't - I automatically go sit/lay down if I feel really bad).  Then there came the point right before I passed out that I felt so miserable and thought to myself "I'm going to pass out!" Just as I was thinking this I heard the gentleman tell mommy "She's going to pass out, but she'll be okay" -that was interesting!  Thankfully the test went well, we found out some great information and I can safely say that I hope I never have to do that again! :)  After we finished up there our orders were to go get a gatorade and something to eat, so we did.  Even though I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 6:00 that morning (and by this time it was 4:00 in the afternoon) I really didn't feel like eating much of anything (I was still pretty sick from the test).  Mommy and I had an enjoyable rest of the evening before coming home.  What a pleasant day it was!!!

One of my new daily occupations - tilting for a 1/2 an hour! :) 

(It actually turns out to be a pretty good opportunity to get some reading in!)

Sabrina's 14th Birthday - March 19th 2011

 The birthday girl

 Sabrina and Daddy by her birthday countdown sign

Sabrina and Mommy

 Sabrina and Shenandoah

 Sabrina and Sayer

 Sabrina and Seth

 Sabrina and Stasia

 Sabrina and Sienna

 Sabrina and I

 (and Shenandoah too :)

 Sabrina and Joshua

 Opening gifts

 A view of the proceedings 

 Sayer did the brownies (with some oversight form me). He did a great job and we had a lot of fun!

 A birthday prayer

 Blowing out the candles

Enjoying brownies and ice cream!

We love you Sabrina!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Baby Goats!!!

Introducing...

The newest additions to our property!!!  Much to Sabrina's (our goat girl) delight, three weeks ago our new mama goat (Sable) kidded for the first time.  Then, two weeks later (last Saturday on Sabrina's birthday) our other first time mama goat kidded!!!  Sable had one buck and Tabitha had one doe and one buck.  

Here are a couple of pictures...

 Sable and her kid Ballantyne the Goat

 Ballantyne the Goat

 Tabitha's kids

Lady (the brown one) and Tramp (the black one)

Another Water Leak -Can you believe it?!

We couldn't! :)

A couple of weeks ago, we had a lot water leaking into our laundry room/master bathroom.  Originally, we thought we were going to have to chisel up the floor, but thankfully (and much to our delight) it ended up being our outdoor facet that was leaking into the house.  Needless to say, that was much easier to fix and happily we were only out of water for a couple of days instead of several more (we had to let the walls dry out in order to see where the leak was coming from before we could fix it)!!!  Joshua came over for the day and helped daddy fix it which was a huge blessing.

 Siding off, facet down, holes cut

 Another hole on the inside and investigating the findings

 A closer look

 Joshua on the outside and...

...daddy on the inside!

Random Pictures From March

Things are starting to grow

With nice weather comes playing outside!

Shenandoah enjoyed her first taste of organic lemonade

Folding laundry

Doing school

Making brownies 

(that was one of Sayer's projects for his school)

Sabrina made some great french bread!

King of the play set

Writing practice

Math

More writing practice

Playing with farm animals

Working in our garden beds

Daisy enjoys our garden beds too! 

(we're going to have to work on that one :)

Rooster - he's an escape artist :)

Buddies