Prayers needed

This morning one of my best friend's family got a call that no one should have to experience. The call was that my best friend's grandmother went to heaven this morning on the way to the hospital. Her grandparents live in Tipton, Oklahoma so they will go down there as soon as it is safe to get out from the snow/ice storm. Her grammy was such a sweet lady and you could tell she lived for Christ. Please please by praying for them. I know it would be encouraging to them to know that you are praying so if you want to leave a comment, I will make sure they see it sometime.

Tacy and I at Winterfest

"Remember your promise to me;

it is my only hope.

Your promise revives me;

it comforts me in all my troubles."

Psalm 119:49-50

"Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Live laugh love

Yesterday was a really good day even though I felt horrible! On Saturday night I got about 30 or 45 minutes of sleep...I went to church not knowing if I should be there since I felt so bad. But I was so glad to be there!! Worship was great and we talked about what to do when life gets your attention. I actually did a lot yesterday which was exciting.

Today we took the Duttons to the airport so they can go back home to Brazil. My parents even checked Landon out of school so he could come too!

Laura and I at church yesterday! Haha notice Allen in the back... and yes we did plan to match. Seriously.

Our friendship bracelets that say live laugh love.

We are going to miss their family a lot!

It's 2:53am and I'm still goin' strong...kinda

It has been/still is a rough night. It started with me getting ready to eat dinner and then having a wave of nausea hit fast and hard. I took some medicine and went to bed...when I tell my parents goodnight and say I'm going to bed, it is just understood that I mean that I'm going to lay down and will most likely be back downstairs several times during the night because of the fight sleep and I are in. In my fun world goodnight means, see you in an hour when House Hunters is over and I need some popcorn and hot chocolate. Then...repeat this process several times until I think I have used enough energy going up and down the stairs to be able to beat sleep. That is my nightly routine! Sometimes, like tonight, I start this process around 7. Other times I start it at midnight. No matter what time I start this, I always have to fight sleep.
So around midnight I realized I was not going sleep anytime soon. Some nights I KNOW I won't sleep. It's very weird... tonight I haven't been able to sleep because I'm in a lot of pain and I'm sweating like crazy but I'm freezing. I think I'm having blood sugar issues because I started shaking SO much and was really light headed and weak. So somehow I stumbled downstairs for the 5th time and got some yogurt and Gatorade. I came back upstairs and was just peacefully watching tv when I felt ANOTHER earthquake. This time I RAN downstairs and started crying and freaking out. Feeling horrible plus being angry about not sleeping plus another earthquake is not the best mixture. I looked online and it was a 3.7 magnitude and the center was a MILE from my house. After calming down kinda I took my dog upstairs with me and watched more tv. Twenty minutes later I decided I needed to take a bath to help the pain. So I went back downstairs to take a bath and now I'm back upstairs. Being angry that I'm not asleep does not help anything...I know I'm supposed to try and relax so I can maybe sleep but that's a little hard to do right now. I am going to try to go to church but it will be a hard day. I hope you have a peaceful weekend!

Biggest Loser+Veils+Worship+5000 Teens+Earthquake+Loritab=Winterfest Weekend!

Wow what a crazy and great weekend!

Friday morning I had planned to sleep in since I was going to Winterfest Friday afternoon. At 9:28am I was delightfully awakened to my house swaying and a loud rumbling. I really thought Jesus was coming back. But after a few minutes of this going on, I realized that I was still on earth and He didn't come back...bummer. So I ran downstairs and my mom and I decided it was an earthquake.

We knew it was an earthquake because we were in the big Hawaii earthquake a few years ago. We were asleep on the fourth floor of our hotel and the first earthquake was at 7am. We couldn't even walk because it was swaying so bad and the power was out. Finally it stopped a little so we ran out of the room and found everyone racing down the stairs. As we left the room, every towel was swaying on the towel rack. It is still so weird to think about. When we got out of the hotel everyone was so worried about a tsunami coming. We called our family and told them that they will be showing the earthquake on the news so not to worry because we were okay. The earthquake was a 6.8. There were lots of aftershocks all day. It was Sunday so once it was "safe" to go back to our room we got ready to go to church. I remember taking a shower in the dark and still watching the towels sway from aftershocks. The hallways were dark and everything was eerie. On our way to church we listened to the radio and heard about the damage. We had church in the dark and everyone was still shook up. On our way back to the hotel we realized that we had no cash and the power was out so there were no ATMs open. It was a very weird and scary feeling knowing that you are on an island in the middle of nowhere and we still weren't sure about the possibility of the tsunami. Thankfully everything was fine and we had a great trip.

Random note...in Hawaii after the earthquake it rained for a few days straight starting right after the earthquake. On Friday here after the earthquake it was SO foggy and rained too. Does that always happen?

So Friday afternoon we left for Dallas. Worship started at 7 followed with a lesson. Now, worship at Winterfest doesn't mean worship like we normally think of. Also, a lesson doesn't mean a normal type of lesson. I can't even explain it but it is amazing and so powerful. There are 5000 teens, parents, elders, and sponsors worshiping together. Wow.

Phil Brookman, one of my youth ministers, was the speaker on Friday. He did such a great job!!
The theme this year was The Veil. We talked about the veil in the Tabernacle. We were separated from God because of our sin. We could not be in the presence of God because He is pure and we are not. No one could enter His presence except the High Priest once a year with sacrifice.

We saw a reenactment of when the veil in the tabernacle was torn when Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for us. We could then see God. His presence was now open to all. Before we took communion, we were reminded that for the same reason the veil was broken, Jesus' body was broken for us. We were eating the bread, His body, and drinking the wine(or grape juice), His blood. He was the sacrifice for us to see God.

Through out the weekend we were challenged to remove whatever veil we have that is separating us from truly following and knowing God. We need to remove our veil and show the world the real us. We need to stop being fake and we need to be real with people and the world. We talked about that we need to know what we believe so that when we remove our Veil, we can share why.

The weekend was so uplifting. We also had a few Christian comedians come. They explained that they don't make fun of Christians, like their title sounds. But they want to spread laughter and happiness because that is what God blessed them with. One of the best was Bob Smiley. He was great!

Before we left on Sunday, we heard the testimony from Sean from last seasons Biggest Loser. It was amazing!! He is a youth minister in Tulsa and was apart of an acapella singing group. When he came out he got a standing ovation. It was so neat.

Physically it was a very hard weekend. I couldn't have made it without my pain medicine. I had to take it as often as I could(every 6 hours) which means I was very drugged the whole trip. I hate taking it. Hate hate hate. The side effects are annoying and everything seems like a blur. But I guess I'll take the side effects if the pain gets a little better. I got around 3 hours of sleep a night which didn't help anything. We didn't stay up too late, I just couldn't sleep (surprise I know)

Tacy, Megan, me, Sean from Biggest Loser, Sadie, Natalie

Tacy and I

Great roommates :)

When we got back to church on Sunday afternoon I was reading the bulletin and this was the first verse on the outline for the lesson Sunday morning.

"But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:16-18

Is it a coincidence that our church was learning about that the same time Winterfest was? I think not.

Why are you here? Uhh I'm not sure.

Yesterday was the endocrinologist appointment. The doctor came in and asked me why I was there. My answer? "Uhh I'm not quite sure actually..."

At this point he didn't know that I have Lyme or that I have 10 doctors at this point in time which means I was told to be there by my parents and didn't even know what kind of doctor he was. So he looked at me very strangely trying to figure out why I didn't know why I was there.

After a year of silence my parents finally decided to jump in. Finally he understood why I had no clue as to why I was there. After he was caught up on my life, he explained some things about my thyroid and some other glands I think. (obviously I wasn't being the best patient since I was reading the posters while he and my parents chatted)

He wanted some tests (of course) and I needed to get a shot for the tests. He explained that they were injecting me with some medicine (wow really?! You can inject medicine? Who knew!?) and then do a blood test 30 minutes after the injection and 60 minutes after the injection. Of course our insurance does not cover me at this doctor's lab so we got to go to another lab at another place! It was like the amazing race. We HAD to rush across town and get the tests exactly at 30 and 60 minutes. So we got to the lab and they couldn't find my vein of course. He got the needle in and my vein rolled so he spent 5 minutes moving the needle around. 30 minutes later I got to have that joyous experience again!

They didn't say when we would get the results but they said they would call us. The doctor was very nice though. I just wasn't in the mood to try to understand everything so I pretended like I was listening.

I leave for Winterfest tomorrow!! It will be so great!

I hope you have a great weekend!!

The faithful one

My appointment with the pain management team went good. I really didn't want to go because I'm tired of appointments. Having to catch up every single doctor every single time is tiring.

I went up on the dose of Amitriptiline to 150mg every night. They said this is the highest I can go unless I really need to go up more but then I can only go up to 200mg.

I told them that I've been having a lot more migraines lately and they reminded me how unique this disease is. Everyday it attacks different parts of you. It changes constantly and there is no possible way to know what I will feel like. It also changes in the middle of the day.

Yesterday when I woke up to go to church I was so jittery and felt so spastic. During church I just crashed. I don't know why, that's just how my body reacted that day.

I've been able to babysit for our missionaries from Brazil. It's been great! On Saturday our campaign that went to Brazil in 2007 got together which was so much fun!

Robbin Dutton (Missionary from Brazil) has Lyme and MS. A few years ago my mom went with her to Nevada while she was being treated at the clinic there because your too sick to go alone. Robbin is doing great and only has to go to the clinic every couple years I think. That is how we got connected with the clinic in Reno. There is something called muscle testing which shows if your body is allergic to something at that time. Everyday is different. Look muscle testing up. It's really cool! Robbin has been testing me on things we clean with, wash clothes with, my medicines, and everything I use. We found out I'm allergic to every soap we use and the shampoo I use and tons of other stuff. She said that when we find products I'm not allergic to, it will make such a different. My body is so sensitive to smells and everything.

This weekend my youth group and I are going to something called Winterfest in Arlington, Texas. It's a program that has 4000-5000 teens worshiping together and doing various things. It is one of the best trips that we take. They bring in speakers, college performing groups, and have some amazing testimonies. I am going and am praying that I will be okay. Please pray that I can make it all weekend.

Thursday I'm going to another new doctor that specializes in thyroids and adrenal glands. He will probably run lots of tests and everything.

This song is called Faithful One by Selah

"I find no hope within to call my own
For I am frail of heart, my strength is gone
But deep within my soul is rising up a song
Here in the comfort of the faithful one

I walk a narrow road through valleys deep
In search of higher ground, on mountains steep
And though with feet unsure, I still keep pressing on.
For I am guided by the faithful one.

Faithful, faithful to the end,
My true and precious friend,
You have been faithful,
Faithful, so faithful to me

I see your wounded hands, I touch your side
With thorns upon your brow you bled and died
But there's an empty tomb, a love for all who come
And give their hearts to you, the faithful one.

Faithful, faithful to the end,
My true and precious friend,
You have been faithful,
Faithful, so faithful to me

And when the day is dawned and when the race is run
I will bow down before God's only Son
And I will lift my hands in praise for all you've done
And I will worship you, my faithful one"

Echo and another appointment

On Monday I went to Children's hospital for the Echo. It was interesting! I got to see my heart on the screen the whole time. She monitored different parts of my heart with the ultrasound. She said that she thinks my heart is good structurally. We asked if I still need to go to the Cardiologist. She said yes because the Cardiologist will look at different things. And there is still something going on with my heart. The nurse said I should not be able to feel my heart pounding all the time and it needs to slow down. So the Cardiologist appointment is in the beginning of February at Mercy Hospital.

Yesterday and last night I had a horrible migraine. I had to take 2 migraine pills, and 2 different kind of pain medicines and it still wasn't better. I felt horrible. It's mostly gone today but it still hurts and I'm really worn out.

Today I'm going back to Children's Hospital for an appointment with my pain management team.

Last pictures from Destin!

Just hanging out on the beach!

Mom and I

Janet and I

Landon and I

Grandma and I

Landon skim boarding

Back home and quick update.

We got home from Florida on Friday night. We had a great time on our trip! It was so beautiful and relaxing!! I'm so glad we were able to go.

Yesterday was a great day! It was good to see everyone at church again. Our missionaries from Brazil are here so we got to hang out with them all day!!

Today I am heading to Children's Hospital for an Echocardiogram. It's an ultrasound of my heart.

I hope you have a great week!

"Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

his understanding has no limit." Psalm 147:5