Trust in the Lord with all your heart...

(I had two other pics for this blog, but blogger wouldn't let me upload them!!! After 4 days of being frustrated, I am giving up and just posting it as is...)

Back when I was a kid, all the way through college, I was very afraid of lightning. I think it may have started when I was about 3 and the house across the street got hit by lightning and burnt down. We lived in the country back then and they had a lot of horses. I wasn't even there the night the house burnt down (I was at my aunt's) but for some reason I have it in my head that the horses were screaming. I remember my aunt telling me the same night (across town) that the lightning was God's hand and fingers coming down from heaven...it sure did look that way! I am suprised that did not make me scared of God, on top of lightning!!

Anyway, for years I was afraid of lightning and thunder. I had a job at a place called Drug Emporium and I used to hide under the counter during bad storms. Sometimes, I even cried. It was very embarrassing!

When I was about 23, my first husband, David, and I went on our annual trip to the Durango area to visit the most beautiful place I have ever seen....Electra Lake. (Here is a pic of it...I have a better one, but I'd have to dig it out and then get my scanner working...and, as you know from the previous blog, I am having computer problems so I don't want to deal with it!!!) We would go there every year with his family for about a week. His parents' best friends' mom owned a cabin there and we all loved it up there.

Not very far from Electra Lake is Ouray, Colorado - a wonderful little touristy town that I had first visited when I was 15. Ouray is nestled in the midst of towering mountains on every side. To get to Ouray, you have to go through hairpin turn after hairpin turn down the mountain. (It's called the Million Dollar Highway - it cost a million dollars per mile to build) From Silverton to Ouray is 22 miles but it can take up to an hour and a half to traverse that, just because of how slow you have to navigate the turns. David and I decided to visit Ouray one day, so I could show him "the Little Switzerland of America." As we started out, it started to rain and storm with lightning and thunder to boot. Now, on a good day, the road down to Ouray is pretty scary....especially after growing up with my dad who liked to go all the way over to the side of mountainous roads to look down them! But trying to go down it in blinding rain with lightning and thunder was terrifying. I curled up in the little space between the passenger seat and the engine and hid my head. I was sobbing and basically freaked out. I was very close to throwing up. I honestly thought, actually I was 100% sure, that we were going to die.

It was at that moment that I decided to pray. (I was a Christian back then, but not church going, spirit filled or very knowledgable) I prayed for God to take us to heaven quickly and without pain but while I was praying I began to feel more peaceful. As the peace was coming over me, I realized that we might not die and I got back into my seat and kept praying. I was actually able to look around and not freak out. Then I was completely overcome by peace and realized that if I was going to trust God, I was going to have to do it completely. There really wasn't any point in trusting him to take me to heaven, if I couldn't trust him to take care of me on earth. I had never felt so free as that moment, when I realized I no longer had to worry.

I was never again scared of lightning and thunder, in fact I love them now. Mountainous roads are beautiful to me now too, although I am still unlike my dad in that I like to stay FAR from the side of the cliff. This afternoon I relaxed and enjoyed a beautiful lightning storm and was reminded of that trip to Ouray and reminded of how important it is to truly trust God. You can't pick and choose what you will trust God with. You can't pick and choose parts of the Bible to believe. Our relationship with God must be an all or nothing deal. When we don't give our all, we don't experience His all and we will never be able to fully experience His kingdom for us here on earth.

Insane? or in Christ?

Emily says our meal-time prayers. The other day she got done praying over the food and was ending with:


"And please make sure Mommy isn't insane, and Daddy isn't insane and Brittany isn't insane."
We were all trying our best not to laugh (she gets very hurt when we laugh at her prayers)A few minutes later, while eating, I tried to casually bring it up:
"So, Emmy, where did you learn the word insane?"


She had NO CLUE what I was talking about! "Insane? I don't know that word!"
So I asked her what she had been praying about.
She looked at me as if I was crazy and said:
"I was praying that you wouldn't be in SATAN! Y'know? You should always be In Christ!" Well of course!!


At this point we all busted out laughing and had to apologize profusely for hurting her feelings. I think we were all just so relieved that she wasn't worried about us being insane!

NEWS

I was waiting to announce this until I told my parents - and now they know

so.............(drumroll please)..............

We are expecting another little one!!

We are thrilled about this! God gave us the vision to have a large family a few years ago, after we lost Jacob, and we are excited that we are on our way. We are hoping to have two more children (including this one) of our own and then, once we are in our 40s, start adopting. Of course, we will wait and see what God leads us to do at that time, but that is the vision He has given us.

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him

(Psalm 127:3, NIV).

Kaedra update 7/4/06

It has come to my attention that I should change the name of our blog, considering it is not usually about Kaedy anymore! So we are The Lynn/Coon Family blog, for the time being. ;-) I am going to try to send an update about Kaedra at least every other week, though, for those of you who check in here just for those!

To start off, Kaedra is doing wonderfully!!! She is making great leaps and bounds in her development. She is almost walking - the most she has taken is 3 steps. She stands by herself all the time and even can squat and stand back up, with no problems. She LOVES to climb everything and everyone. We have to be really careful with her, she wants to climb in her crib when she isn't in it and out of it, when she is!

She now goes to church 3 times a week...Wednesday and two times on Sunday. She loves church and jumps up and down when we pull into the driveway!! She is starting to recognize the people there and form some bonds there, too. She loves Annie, one of the girls who works in the nursery on Sunday mornings. Annie is Colton's big sister - the little boy that Kaedy is "betrothed" to! :-) (might as well get that pesky marriage thing out of the way while they are little!) He speaks sign language, too, so they can even communicate well! Actually, he had taught all the other little ones in the nursery sign before Kaedy got there, so everyone in there can sign!

Speaking of sign, Kaedra has a huge sign vocabulary. She can make sentences and is starting to learn her manners with "please" and "thank yous". She even learned "sorry" and has used it a couple of times! LOL. She is being verbal on and off. Today she said MOMMY!!! It isn't her first time, but she hasn't said it in a very long time. And today she said it over and over and over. :-) <~~~~ very happy mommy!!! We aren't worried about her verbal development. We think she will take off with it, once she is ready.

She is on no additional oxygen at all (just room air) and her vent settings have been minimized yet again. She is on very little pressure support and is getting no actual breaths. We go down another two increments this week and she should be completely off the vent during the day by Sept 1st. Then we will work on overnight! She is able to come off the vent for a few hours at a time with no problems. Our doctor is really happy with her progress, as are we, of course!!

We no longer have daytime nursing. We had a few days in a row where all of our nurses were sick and we got used to taking care of Kaedra all by ourselves. I LOVED it. It was truly my first chance to EVER get her all to myself all day long, for more than one day and I didn't feel like I was in anyone's way or that I was doing something wrong. I finally felt like we had our baby!! And we had our house! Right after that, our nursing hours were cut by insurance (Hallelujah! God working in the background) and we decided to just ask for night nursing. I love it this way. Actually I am ready to cut the hours down a little more, but insurance will be doing that Sept 1st anyway, so I may just wait until then. We are having a great time with her and we feel like a "real" family now. I am actually getting more done now, than when I had nursing....go figure! :-)

Okay, those are the basics for now...I will try to update y'all about her as important things happen or every other week.

Computer Issues - ARGH

I am SOOO frustrated with my computers!! I am at a standstill with a lot of things at the moment because I can't get any computers to work! I rely too much on computers for my everyday life : obviously my email, my bills, my homeschool stuff, my to do list, contact list, calendar, etc. I am supposed to design the program for Brittany's upcoming play (on Friday) and I am needing some of my favorite places on Explorer for some other things going on. GRRRRRR.

#1. I can't get my laptop started. It is stuck at the IBM/Thinkpad black screen. The laptop has my homeschool stuff on it and some of my writing for my book. I can't even get it to start up!!! :-(

#2. I can't get my wireless network working between my other two computers. (well, I wanted my laptop networked in, too, but it would help if it was working first!!!) Each one of them is hooked to the network but they can't see each other! ARGH!!! did I mention ARGH???

Okay, I am going to go back to trying to network my computers...

hopefully I will be all up and running and catching up on all my computer stuff soon....

Friday Fifteen

Fifteen reasons the Zandis should move to (our area in) Oklahoma:
(here is a review by Yahoo of living in Tulsa)

(Of course I am assuming you know about the loooow cost of living & great housing and that it is extremely green (in fact it is called "green country"))

15. Big Splash Water Park (and you can get season tickets at Christmas time for $20 each) and Bell's Amusement Park

14. The Oklahoma Aquarium a wonderful aquarium with an AWESOME shark display (our favorite part)

13. Boy Scouts are really big around here!

12. Woolaroc in Bartlesville - it is REALLY cool. Great museums, petting zoo, great activities including a thieves and outlaws reunion which is supposed to be really fun, great Christmas activities, too. You can also have buffalo walk right up to your car!!

11. Tulsa Zoo - voted America's favorite zoo last year! We agree...it is awesome! Very large and detailed, would take a whole day to go through thoroughly, it's better to get a season pass and go many times doing different parts. There are also two big museums - the Gilcrease and the Philbrook, the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, The Will Rogers Museum, and several native American museums.

10. Incredible Pizza - not that our pizza is incredible, this is a place...and it IS incredible!! Here is a little blurb: "Welcome to America's Incredible Pizza Company, where Nothing Tops our Pizza but the Fun!™ Here you'll find an incredible all-you-can-eat buffet and choose to eat in the sporty Gymnasium, the cool Drive-In Room, fun retro 50s Diner or the quiet Family Room! Then, hop into some fun at the Fairgrounds, where you'll find indoor Go-Kart Races (with real trophies!), Bumper Cars, Route 66 Mini Golf, an incredible Arcade where you can redeem tickets for great prizes, Adult and Junior Bowling, and much more! " It is our most favorite place to go with the kids.

9. Great homeschooling group and Brandi already knows some of the members! Also a lot of homeschooling resources....a used homeschooling book store, a monthly (free) book swap where you can give and/or take any school books, a great convention in Oklahoma City - OCHEC. Plus, of course, the seminar that our homeschool group puts on every year and that I am usually a speaker in!

8. Great church you can try out right away! Our Finest Hour with a great youth program, elementary program and kid program, as well as wonderful teaching, of course!

7. The nearby Ozark mountains with the beautiful, fun, little town of Eureka Springs in it. It is near enough for a day trip, but far enough away to feel like you are in another world!

6. ALLLLL the nearby lakes... Oolagah, Keystone , Fort Gibson, Tenkiller, Grand Lake , Lake Eufala are just some of them. There are also a lot of nearby rivers, streams and creeks. There is a pond about 100 feet from my backyard. Water everywhere!

5. Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas are all less than 2 hours away. Makes for great day trips or camping trips. Kansas has an AWESOME space museum. (I know, that is a weird place for a space museum, but we LOVED it!) It is a day trip away. Missouri has GREAT rafting and canoeing (although oklahoma has good rivers too.) Our favorite is Noel, Missouri.

4. We are the "buckle" of the bible belt so things are very conservative here, in general. The cashier at Michael's store tells everyone "God Bless You" when you call or after you check out with her. That is pretty normal around here. We live a few miles from a big bible school...Rhema and across town from Oral Roberts University (who, by the way, LOVES homeschoolers and it is a GREAT university!!) .

3. Speaking of universities, lots of higher education possibilities here....Oklahoma University, Oklahoma State University, Northeastern State University, Tulsa Community College, Tulsa Tech, and lots of smaller ones.

2. We have a family of bunnies who sneaks in our yard when the dogs aren't out and munch on our grass, we have about 13 kinds of birds (if not more) that make their home in and around our back yard (my favorites are the cardinals, bluejays and purple martins), about 1/4 mile from our house we saw a deer last week; if you like wildlife, this is the area to be! We get to do a backyard bird count in our yard every spring and we are planning on trying to get our backyard certified as a natural habitat!

and the number one reason to move to our area of Oklahoma....

1. BECAUSE WE ARE HERE!!!!! Besides making us happy, it would provide these benefits to you:

• someone to look at houses and narrow down your choices for you, before you have to come out
• someone to help you unload, unbox and move in (how cool is that! That alone is worth it! LOL)
• someone to help you find the nearest Walmart, a good doctor, the best mexican food and any other important things.
• someone to introduce you to lots of different people and make you feel at "home"
• someone who will actually babysit all six (or however many) of your children for you at ONE time!
• meals brought to you when Brandi's not feeling like cooking!
• BBQs at our house! WOOHOO!
• Someone to spend the holidays with if you want and noone if you don't want!

Okay, friends of mine from Oklahoma...add your reasons why the Zandis should move here!!

My poor neglected blog

Awwwwww, my poor neglected blog!!! I have been a bad blogger since signing onto My space. Yes, I took the plunge and have a Myspace page as well. I have been busy there, setting up shop.. I found a background I liked but I didn't like the rest of the theme. I found a way that I could design my own and I did that. I am really pleased with the results. I would like to add a few more things, but it does seem very much like me! :-)

Not much new around here. We changed Kaedy's schedule a little and she is going to be coming out with us more during the day now. I got really "attached" to her in San Antonio. That was the most time I have ever gotten to spend with her! Wow...I got more attached, go figure? LOL!! Now I don't want to have to share!

We are officially out of our old church! We are going to be eating dinner at our new church on Wednesday night and then help get ready for the "grand opening" this weekend. If you haven't seen the final product, you need to check it out!! Here are some of the newest pictures on our web page.

I wrote a weather unit study and we started it on Saturday. We will be working on it through August. It is going to be so much fun! Both girls love weather and we are going to learn so many cool things. I think it is such an exciting thing to be able to forecast weather! One of the books I got teaches you how to forecast with clouds and wind direction.

Okay, that's all for now....I promise to be more faithful. :-)

Happy Birthday Brandi!!!!

Home again, Home again

Well we are home! YEAH!!! We got back on Thursday, mid morning. Everything went really well on the trip home, no problems. Kaedra was THRILLED to be home. She immediately wanted to get on the floor and play! We let her down and she played and played and played, basically until she fell over exhausted.

It was wonderful to be home with the girls again. I don't know how many times Brittany has told me that she is glad we are home....at least 10 times a day! Emmy and Britt were so excited to see their sister, too, and have been lavishing her with attention. We have been swimming everyday since being home. AAAAAHHHHH a pool....I love it!

Britty and I went to work day at our church this Saturday. I helped wash the windows (I am the tallest woman, so I did all the really tall windows from the top of a ladder) and swept floors. Brittany scraped stucco and paint off the floors in preparation for the carpet and she helped wash windows as well. It was a lot of fun to help out and I loved seeing the church again! It has BEAUTIFUL chandeliers!!! They are wrought iron, a copperish color, and they are beautiful. The children's rooms are painted so neat, with great blues in different shades. I love the whole place. I can't wait for it to open!! We will be taking Kaedra there regularly as soon as it opens!! WOOHOO!! That will be SOOO exciting!! And it is only a little more than a mile down the street!

Church yesterday was awesome, both times! I know part of it was how hungry I was for The Word, being away from it for two weeks. I went to prayer time on Saturday night, too, and it was just such a blessing to be able to pray for everyone's needs! I can't find my church notebook, which is a little disturbing. It has my really cool highlighter with 9 colors in it and all my notes from church this year. It also has other stuff like stamps and envelopes from the trips, but I really just miss the notes and the highlighter. I am hoping I didn't leave it in San Antonio or on the plane. The great thing is that the Holy Spirit knows where it is and He will bring it to my remembrance!

Coming Home

We are coming home tomorrow!!! WOOHOO!!! The ambulance is picking Kaedy up at 8am and we should be back in Tulsa by 1030am, if we get the lear jet again!! YEAH!!! We get to take her straight home, no more hospital visits for right now!! I am soooo ready!! After nearly a week in hospital beds and hospital showers, I can't wait for home!!!! :-)

She is doing marvelously!! She stayed up last night a few hours and I got to see lots of late night television like Judge Joe Brown (who really should quit pretending to judge and just become a comedian because that is what he thinks he is!!!) and infomercials. I also didn't know that you could see Jay and Conan again in the middle of the night! Oh what you learn on late night/early morning TV. HAHA.

We don't have ANY nursing scheduled until Sunday morning. Not even nights. I am excited about going home, but not excited about getting up all night to feed her and give her treatments. AAAGH. I might actually have to act like a "real" mommy and take care of my baby full time!! HAHA

Thank you to everyone for your prayers. See you soon!!!