Camping, bestest friends, and kidney stones~wow!!

Once again I am playing catch up on this blog thing. I say I am going to try to do better and then I just don't. I am very disappointed that I have not made this more of a priority. As I have said before, I have absolutely no problems reading blogs. I read Kelly's blog on a daily basis~so why I can't take a minute to write on mine~I have no idea. Maybe I just don't want to "face" the things I am writing about?

I am getting very excited about this holiday weekend. Our family, along with 4 other families from our church, are headed to Lake Catherine in Hot Springs to spend the weekend camping. Now, I have been told that I camped with my parents when I was Olivia's age~age 2 or so~BUT I have no recollection of it so I am saying that this is my FIRST time to camp. I am sure Ben has camped before with friends, but I am not even sure about that. So this is our very first family camping trip. It has been a little tough trying to prepare for it. We had NOTHING!! We are borrowing a tent from my parents, borrowing a queen air mattress from my in-laws, and the rest we have had to buy the last couple of months. I didn't really purchase any big items for this trip~I did buy another queen air mattress because we are used to a California King for the 3 of us every night so I wasn't sure how the 3 of us would do on 1 queen. So more than likely Olivia and I will share one and then Ben will have his own. Where we are going doesn't have water or electricity so I did buy 2 battery operated fans for the tent at night. We are used to sleeping with an oscillating fan on us at night so I knew we would need one. We borrowed an ice chest to add to the one we already had. Then I just got the basic stuff for camping~matches, flashlights, rain ponchos, bungee cords, a tarp, first aid kit, etc. I went to the grocery store tonite and got the food. I have to admit that I was NOT looking forward to this AT ALL but had agreed to go because all my friends were going. My attitude has changed though~I really think we will have a great time and I am looking forward to getting away and spending some time relaxing, swimming, grilling, etc with great friends. I will definately have to update when we get back!!

A couple of weeks ago my best friend Stephanie, and her 10 year old daughter, Anna, came and spent the week with us unexpectedly. Steph's mom was in the hospital for a procedure and they found out some not so good news so she came to town to be with her mom. Anna stayed with me during the day. Anna is my FIRST baby girl. Before they moved to Tennessee I would keep Anna almost every weekend while her momma worked. She was a young, single mom and worked hard to provide for her and Anna. She did a great job and they have both turned into amazing people. Steph is now married and expecting another little girl, Sara Elizabeth, in early August. Anna is going to be a great big sister although it will take some getting used to that she is not the only child anymore. I thoroughly enjoyed them being here since I don't get to see them as often as I would like. We stayed up late and had girl talk just like we did in junior high. You see, Steph and I have been best friends since the 8th grade. We have been through SO MUCH together and I could not imagine having a better best friend. We have had our share of ups and downs but we always came out on top even better friends. I am so thankful for her friendship and for her allowing me to be such a big part of Anna's life. It has not been easy this past year for either of them because Steph's husband, Brian, is in Iraq. He won't be home until September AFTER the baby is born. :( It saddens me to think that he is going to miss out on the birth of his daughter. He has become such an amazing father to Anna and an amazing provider for Stephanie. While they were here we snuck over to the Old Mill to take some pics of each other. Neither one of us are great photographers so I think they turned out great!!!

I have been dealing with kidney stones alot lately. I recently had a trip to the ER and they did a CAT scan and found that I have alot of stones in both kidneys and a few are as big as 6mm! I was sent to a urologist after that ER visit and they did x-rays and another CAT scan and found that I indeed had alot in both kidneys. Alot meaning probably 10-15 in each kidney!! I am currently on a watch and see right now and supposed to be straining my urine to see if I can catch any stones that I pass so that they can be anazlyzed. The ones that are as big as 6mm cannot be passed on my own so I will have to probably have lithotripsy to break them up. I had lithotripsy done about 4 or 5 years ago and it did seemed to help. If that doesn't help then I will have to have a stint put in to help them pass~which I DO NOT want to do!!! So if you will keep me in your prayers. I am also having migraines alot more again. I am currently not on any preventative medicine so that may be why. I was recently on topomax to prevent them and although I didn't think it was helping~i may have been wrong because since going off of it they have gotten worse. I take imitrex and am having to take it WAY too often so I need to go back to the doc and see what I can do next.

I am still wanting another baby very badly but I know that I will know when it is God's timing. Up until recently I have wanted another baby but haven't felt peaceful about it. I think that is because so many of my relationships were out of wack. My marriage was on the back burner, my daughter was my very first priority, even after my relationship with God. I KNOW that is not how it is supposed to be and I KNOW that God has had me reevaluate alot lately. I had become very selfish and was focus more on ME and not on anything else. I didn't mean for it to be that way but unfortunately it had become my way of life. So I wanted a baby, and I wanted it in MY timing and I hadn't even stopped to consider if it was what the Lord wanted or even what Ben wanted. He said sure whatever but I knew that was just to keep the peace. I want a new baby to be OUR decision and for BEN to be just as thrilled as I would be. So the last couple of months I have really been trying to focus more on my relationship with my husband. He is a Godly man who wants the things of the Lord for our family so I want to encourage him in that. I should be thankful for him and for his heart for God and not irritated at the little things. I need to focus on what I can do for him instead of always focus on what he can do for me or what he ISN'T doing for me. He is a gift from God and I want him to know that I see him as such. I don't ever want to get to the place I was in again~taking my marriage for granted and taking his love for granted. My prayer is that God would continue to show me ways to improve our relationship and show me what I can do to make that happen.

This was Ben and I on our honeymoon in the Sandals Resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica only 3 short years ago.

I suppose I have rambled on long enough~see if I didn't wait so long in between post then I wouldn't have so much to write all at once~I could just write it as it happens!!! :)

Jen