Just a few more pictures

Kalahari Resorts

Sandusky, OH

We had so much fun for our 1 year anniversary! We went to go see Four Christmases while we were in Ohio, we went shopping at the mall right down the road! We definitely would recommend it to families with children!!!

Toilet bowl ride

(Which I did not go on)

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Whoo Hooo!!!This is me snow blowing the driveway on the 1st snow we got that was accumlative. Snowblowing is actually pretty fun. I usually get snow all over me because the chute is going the wrong way. OOPS!! And believe it or not I snowblowed the driveway this afternoon with all the snow we got. I know Kyle will be impressed but bummed because he probably wanted to do it. Oh well I left him the walkway to do.


Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Anyone want a cute puppy!?!

So this weekend, on our anniversary weekend, we decided that we are going to get rid of our puppy. I have many mixed feelings about this, but I know it is the right choice. My parents bought a cottage this past summer and we don't want to always have to come home from work and pick him up and worry about bringing him somewhere before heading out to the cottage when we are out there for the week. He is the cutest thing and has a lot of energy!!Maybe too much!!! I have to be honest right?? He is cooped up in his cage all day long while we are at work and just has not gotten the concept of peeing and pooping outside. We know this is because we are gone for 8-9 hours a day, everyday and he can't hold it, he is so stinkin small!! We also are getting rid of him because we just have so much going on in the next couple months and we don't want to always bring him to Kyle's parents and have them deal with him.

He is 9 months old and just needs a loving family with patience!!!

$400

We paid $700 for him and got him neutered and all his shots are up to date. It would make a perfect Christmas gift for kids!!! :)

Have you seen our wreaths??

Last week in the middle of the week we had noticed that our wreaths were gone off our outdoor lights and off of our front door. I noticed tracks in the snow up by our outdoor lights, but didn't think anything of it or notice that the wreaths were gone. I just figured it was Kyle's footprints from adjusting the lights or putting new lightbulbs in or something. Kyle then noticed that night that our wreath was gone off our front door... We couldn't believe that someone would dare to do that and this past summer we had some of our pretty flowers cut off their stems one day.The nerve of some people to come up to our house and do that. We are starting to think that this neighborhood isn't so great.

This is the wreath that was stolen off our front door. It was the first year we had it up and it has like crystaly (word?) beads on it. It was so pretty. This is the one off of Katie and Robb's house, but no worries they didn't steal it!! We bought it at the same time. The other two wreaths were just normal green wreaths didn't really care about those so much but none the less they GOT STOLEN...

Also something that went on last month was that Kyle had Salmonella Food Poisoning over Thanksgiving. He had gotten it about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving from Chinese food. Sorry to those who like Chinese food and that turned you off from it. I like it too and still eat it and actually ate it tonight!!! He was "diagnosed" with it the week of Thanksgiving, so it took him a long time to go in to the doctor to figure out that that is what it was.He just thought he had diarrhea but when it lasted for over a week, then a week and a half we started to wonder. He was then put on strong antibiotics, but those caused him to not have a very good appetite, therefore not having a normal Thanksgiving meal. It consisted of toast. He is feeling back to normal now. Thank goodness!!

This weekend we are off to Kalahari Resorts and Waterpark in Ohio for our anniversary!!!! We are so excited to go. It is a huge indoor waterpark!!!

Some old pictures/ Pictures from Mayo

This past summer/fall, Kyle won some tickets through JQ 99 to go to the Michael W. Smith & Steven Curtis Chapman concert in Detroit. It was amazing, it was one of the first times after Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter died and he had some very powerful stories that were heard through his songs.

Michael W. Smith

Steven Curtis Chapman

Picture from Mayo

Day of surgery - 6 a.m

1st time visiting Katie

I could only stay for about 5 minutes then I was tired

Out like a light and still drugged up,

pretty much the story the whole time in the hospital.

I wasn't very good company for Kyle and my parents.

8 weeks since the transplant!!!

Paco is still working!!!

Praise GOD!!!!

Kyle and I are getting ready to get our pictures taken for our 1st Christmas Card!!! I will post pictures once we decide. In the mean time, Dawson says Merry Christmas ! :) He hates the camera. Everytime that green light goes off he quick turns his head and we miss the cute shot!!

Time for sweaters!!!

It's the time of year for getting the sweaters out and I love it! Dawson happens to like sweaters on too. So with out even really thinking about it this morning when I got dressed we pretty much wore the same thing for the day!! We both had grey sweaters on. So I had to take a picture with him.

Happy Halloween!!!

As far as how I am doing... I am doing better and better everyday!! I try to go into work a few hours everyday and that goes okay, but get very tired very easily. I am so happy to have Katie and Robb, and Mom and Dad home now. It definately makes me feel better!!! I even was able to go visit my good friend Laura from high school, who just got married and moved to the Jackson, MI area. We thought we would make a trip out of it and go to Howell to shop!! That took a lot out of me to shop. But it was so good to see Laura and Troy!

Here are some pics of Kyle and I at her wedding! Kyle and I served Apple Cider and Donut holes at her reception!

We had so much fun attempting to square dance!!

Me and the beautiful bride!!

I miss her

Now that I have been home for a few days now , I was able to look back at Katie's blog and looked at the posts that she has written. Most of the ones that I looked back on were ones that were written while I was still in the hospital, still recovering and sleeping alot. So I didn't really have much time to look at the posts in depth at all. After reading the posts that both Robb and Katie have posted and seeing the pictures, I realize how much I want to be there with her still. I was there with her in the pre-op room waiting to go into surgery as we tried to come up with a name for my kidney that was going to be given to her. She was there for me while I had my I.V put in(which I was scared about and she knew that). We were in the same hospital only 3 floors in between us for the first phone call between us after the surgery but wanted to be right in the same room so I could see how she was doing. I took a walk with her, I watched TV with her, I laughed with her(even though it hurt both of us to laugh)and even though I was so ready to get home to my own house, my own bed, what I wouldn't give to be back there with her so I could walk with her and watch TV with her again. It's hard to just share e-mails back and forth when all you want to do is see her and just talk about what we went through. It was an amazing experience and gift that I could give her and I want that gift, Paco (which is what we named the kidney) to do amazing things for Katie and that God will bring her home to us soon!!

Leaving tomorrow

So we are leaving tomorrow at 10 a.m. by plane again. I am ready to get home, but also quite nervous about the plane ride and having to sit straight up in the plane for 2 hours with out being able to recline and relieve some pain from my incisions. Please pray that that will go well. This is definately going to be a bittersweet moment for me. I am so ready to be back home in my own house, in my own bed and get back to our dog.I am also so ready to get back to the people that are back in MI, like my sister Lisa!! We miss her so much and wish she could have been out here with us. But it also means that I have to leave Katie, Robb and Paco(my kidney). Katie hopefully gets out of the hospital tomorrow and we will be leaving:( So we won't really know how she will be doing being out of the hospital, only by phone. Pray that everything will go well with that, and that she will adjust to being in the hotel and that her pain will be minimal.

Thanks for all your prayers!!

I'm still here!!

Sorry for the lack of posts while in the hospital. I never really got the chance or felt like sitting up and typing a post. But I am doing good now! I am in the hotel room right across the street to the hospital, so I can still see Katie!!! She is doing soo good!!! I am just amazed at her sense of humor and her spunk, right after being in surgery!!! I don't hardly remember things that happened before surgery, but I do remember being at such peace and not being scared. How amazing is God for giving me that peace and not having any doubts and that he had this planned for me when I was born! What an amazing gift to me and to Katie!!! God you are so good!! I want to thank everyone for their prayers and prayers of praise with us as we went through this. Pray that the kidney will continue to be accepted by Katie's body!! So far so good!!!

And I also want to thank our family...(I will get into that later, i need to be able to see the screen while I am typing and not crying.) Let's just say that my family is just amazing. I am so glad that I was brought up in such a great Christian family that have this faith and we have so much to look forward to!!

Cute hair, huh?

We made it!!!

Well we are here!!! We got into Rochester Int. Airport around 8 pm (theirtime). When we got there my doctor ,(here at Mayo) that I met with a couple weeks ago walked into the airport and recognized Kyle and I. What weird timing for both of us to be there at the same time. Anyways, we got to our hotel, which is about 15 minutes away from the airport and right across the street from the Rochester Methodist Hospital that we will be staying at for the surgery.
The flight went very well. We flew in a 8 passenger plane out of Vriesland. We all wore head-sets so that we could hear everything that was going on between the Pilot and the air traffic control people. My ears are still plugged from the landing though, everyone elses have popped.
Pray for my sinus infection to be cleared up by the time I get blood drawn and start the pre-surgery stuff(which starts at 7am). Pray for a good nights rest (Tonight and ESPECIALLY tomorrow night) for both Katie and I .

God is good!!

Kyle and I will be leaving next week Monday to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to donate one of my kidneys to my sister Katie!!!! I am so excited to have the opportunity to give my sister a normal life, back to what it used to be 8-9 months ago. God has given me the strength and the health to be able to do this, I am so blessed!! God has also given me peace to not have any fear at this point, which is also a huge blessing to me. The surgery will be on Wednesday the 8th and should be back in Michigan hopefully by the 13th. Pray for a speedy recovery for both myself and Katie and that her body will accept my kidney quickly!!! God has answered our MANY prayers!!!


I will be updating this as we anticipate leaving for Mayo, while we are at Mayo and the road to recovery for both Katie and I. Katie also has a blog that she has had for a while now, ever since she lost her baby boy Brenham Jay on Feb. 29.


Her blog is http://whenhellomeansgoodbye.blogspot.com/





Please keep both us and our family in your prayers.

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by Katie, (my sister) to share 6 random things about myself. SO here it goes.

1) I got hit by a car when I was in the 3rd grade.

2) I received the "Most Talkative award" for mock elections my senior year in high school.

3) I love shoes!!

4) I gag very easily by nasty smells..

5) I once asked a guy if he was single (for my sister) and he thought I was asking if he was gay because he was the nurse at the hospital that Katie was in for her Kidney Disease. Turns out he did have a girlfriend and left me completely embarrassed that he thought I thought he was gay just because he was a nurse.I think I embarrassed my family that day.

6) I freak out at the smallest noises in my house when I am home alone.

And that is all. I know not very interesting..

And I can't tag....Lisa ( that means you need to start a blog)..lol and Jill!!

The Road Trip to Detroit, Canton and Howell

My birthday trip was so much fun. We left on Sunday June 29 ( I know almost a month ago) and we first drove to Detroit to go see the Tigers game. We get about 10 minutes away from the stadium and I was thinking about how much fun this was going to be!! Then I started to think more about the game and realized that I had forgotten the game tickets. We had gotten them in the mail about a month before the game so I just set them on the counter by our phone so I didn't have them in my purse all the time. I told Kyle that I had forgotten them and he thought I was lying to him. We get to the game and go up to the ticket counter and tell them our situation, so we had to walk to a different counter and luckily I paid Credit Card for the tickets and they could pull up our credit card number and see our ticket information!!!! Whew!

The game was fun but then it started to rain so we left at about the 6th inning and headed to our Hotel in Canton. We watched the rest of the game in our room and then we went out to go to IKEA and out to eat at Bd's Mongolian BBQ!!One of my favorites!!! Then we went to go see a movie at the local movie theater. We saw "Get Smart" which was a funny movie.

The next morning, my birthday, we left the hotel and went to Howell to go shopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall. My mom, sisters, aunts and cousins were all going to go there to go shopping so we thought we might as well go to. (Sorry Kyle for being the only guy.) But we went shopping on our own and met up with them for lunch. We did some REALLY good shopping there!!

Now onto another subject.

Our Yorkie, Dawson, has been quite a handful lately. Everytime we put him in his cage, (whether it is to go to bed or go to work) he some how has unlatched the latch with his teeth and then pulls the latch to let himself out all the time. So we have a cute little puppy meeting us at the front door when we get home. So we decided to tie his leash around the cage so he couldn't get out. We thought there would be no way possibly for him to get out. We would break his neck if he tried to get out. NOPE not the case with him. He still got out no matter how tight we tied it, somehow he still got out. We were amazed at how little of space he had to get out. Finally we bought some tiny bungee cords to keep it closed, and he hasn't gotten out yet. So hopefully he doesn't find a way to get through those!

HE's getting bigger!

Weekend Get-a-way

So this weekend we are going away to Detroit/Canton area. This will be our 1st weekend get a way since we have been married!!!! We are leaving on Sunday to go to the Tigers game which is at 1 and then staying at a hotel in Canton, and then on Monday we are going to IKEA and possibly shopping in Howell. We also might go to the Henry FordMy birthday is also on Monday so that is kind of why we are going away. So a day off of work is going to be nice and also a few days with no Dawson.(our 16 week old Yorkie).

We also just booked a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas in November for our 1 year anniversary, so the countdown begins on that!!!!We are so excited. Kyle has never been on a cruise before, so that will be exciting for him.

I will post pictures when we get back!!!!!

New Addition

So we took the plunge and got a puppy!!His name is Dawson and he is a Yorkshire Terrier (Yorkie). He is 9 weeks old and has a ton of energy, (except at night when he just whines in his cage.) We got him yesterday so I guess I don't blame him for whining and whimpering, but it just isn't fun to not get any sleep because of a whimpering puppy. We've had a few worries in the beginning when we were on our way to Chow Hound to get some stuff for Dawson. He threw up in my lap on the way down there.Luckily I had a blanket underneath him!! So that did not sit well with my stomach, so we pulled over and Kyle held him and I drove. We get going again and then he throws up a little in Kyle's lap and then twice more in Chow Hound..Uh oh...Luckily the lady helping us was very nice and said "if that is all I have clean up today I will be happy." So he either was car sick or just was hungry.








Dawson playing with his cousin Pacey!!!

New Things

Well I am new to this and don't have many thoughts right now, but just wanted to update a little bit on life and what has been going on. Kyle and I have now been married for a little over 3 months and we have experienced some things that we never thought would happen, but has grown us closer to God, my family and each other. On February 29,2008 my sister Katie who was pregnant and due in July went into work and started to have some pain in her stomach. She had her husband pick her up from work and bring her to the doctor. On the way to the hospital the pain began to increase and they got to the hospital and the doctor immdetiately began to hurry with the Iv and all that stuff and said the baby is coming. Katie then began to go into labor and had a baby boy, Brenham Jay, who lived for 3 minutes but the lungs were not developed enough to take a breath. He then went to be in the arms of Jesus in Heaven. I got to hold him and it was the most amazing thing. My family went through alot that weekend but had such peace knowing that Brenham Jay was in heaven.I personally had a lot of questions why something like that would happen to our family but I was always reminded that "There is a Reason", which was the song by Cademon's Call that was played at Brenham's memorial service that we had.
Thanks for reading!

Our new life!!

So it has been a little over 3 weeks since Kyle and I have been married now. And it has been everything I have ever dreamed about. Married life is so cool!!! 2008 has started off great and will be even better when Baby Lubbers is born!!(My sister Katie is pregnant) and we can't wait to be an Aunt and Uncle!!!

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of the wedding!