Others in the blogging world have done this…picking a word for the year.  I thought it might be an interesting exercise and as soon as I thought this, a word popped into my head:  JOY!  I am not predicting my whole year will be filled with joy, but instead I think I want to cultivate joy in my life.  Smiling, laughing and seeing joy around me is what I want to do this year.

I especially want to be more joyful around Dave & John.  A four year old can be trying at times and instead of turning to my old stand-by…anger…I want to at least try to turn things to joy.

So my goal this year to is live it out as joyfully as possible.

Our little family weathered Hurricane Sandy pretty well.  We were prepared for a multiple day power outage, but thankfully our power never went out!!  We finally came through a big storm with power…yoohoo!

The wind began gusting Monday around 4AM, picked up as the day progressed and calmed overnight into Tuesday.  For us, the worst gusts were probably over 50mph.

We had one scary moment around 2PM though.  There was a strong gust and suddenly the Hemlock tree, which stands about three feet from our home, fell.  I was like it fell in slow-motion and landed in the only spot it could have fallen without doing damage.   God’s hand was on that tree for sure!  If it had fallen to the east, if would have taken out our living room.  Falling to the north and it would have blocked the street.  Directly falling south and it would have damaged the pantry and taken out windows.  But instead it fell in a perfect westerly direction next to the house doing absolutely no damage whatsoever!  What a blessing!

Our Idaho family is visiting and staying with Dave’s parents.  Their power went out Monday around 6PM and did not come back until yesterday around 2PM.  This causes some pretty substantial stress, but everyone was safe.

Our MA family did great and didn’t have any power issues or damage.  Even our Manhattan family is doing fine.  Their neighborhood came through unscathed from what I’ve heard. Another huge blessing from God!

Our prayers are with all those who did not fair as well and lost property.  We also pray for the souls of those who lost their lives.

I have joined the ranks of the gallbladder-less.  I had to have mine removed in rather an emergent sort of way on September 29 early in the morning.

Since Jan of 2011, I’ve suffered occasional “gallbladder attacks”, but I had the king daddy whopper gallbladder attack on the evening of the 27th.  It started at 8:30PM and by 5AM the next morning, I had neither slept nor did I have any pain relief so I told my husband and son we needed to head to the emergency room.  By that time, I was also vomiting from pain and the huge amounts of bile dumping into my stomach.

I really love our little hospital.  There is something to be said for big hospitals…say, when you have a major trauma, but for getting in and being seen in an emergency room for something “small” like a gallbladder; I’d go with our little hospital any day.  I had a morphine like drug and anti-nausea meds coursing through my veins within 25 minutes of arriving in the hospital.

The next 50 or so hours are VERY sketchy, but I had an ultrasound, was told I was being admitted and then told I was having surgery.

Everything turned out fantastically.  The surgeon said my gallbladder was nasty and infected, but it is gone and the incisions are healing really well.

No more mean ol’ nasty gallbladder giving me fits!!!

It is September 11 again.  This date always takes me back to that day, I hope I will always remember.

Dear Heavenly Father, please bless the loved ones of those left behind from that terrible day with your merciful peace.  Have mercy on the lost souls.  Amen.

Our son is too young to know of what happened that day, but someday we will teach him of the heroism, loss, terror and change.

Our dear country just has not been the same since that day.   The terrorists took more than lives that day.  They took a few generations’ innocence with them.

We’ve updated our photos page with new photos for the month of May. Our trip for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday to Vermont and New Hampshire are included. We haven’t added captions, yet.