My head is spinning! How can this happen? How did that thing grow there? I saw the CAT scan, a big bright white mass right in the middle of her brain with fingers spreading out and into the tissue.

Lord, please give me strength. I had to make the most difficult phone call I have ever had to make. Fortunately, God delivered the strength that I needed. I was a basket case and couldn't have made the call without him.

Met the neurosurgeon. He took me out into the hall to tell me that it's location was "as bad as it gets". I think I need some oxygen!

She just had a headache and some vision problems. We thought it was a migraine. The tumor is growing and pushing on her optical nerve. Now she needs brain surgery!

Sunday Morning:

As we sat in the preop room, Saskia prayed for salvation and a tear rolled down her face as she said "amen".

The clock has never moved so slowly. Brandi and I lay on the couches in the waiting room. It's been a long night of which I don't even remember. What happened to Saturday night? There were people in and out: Pastor, Brandi, my husband, Audrey and her family. They were all there before the surgery at some point.

Hours pass. The surgeon came to talk to us. He said that when he got in there the tumor was dead. It was like an abscess. He said it was "bizarre". They removed it, but had to take some of the pituitary. There could be complications.

So here is a new one to me, coyote hunting. I decided to go along. Can't say you don't like something if you have never tried it. Saskia, our foreign exchange student from Germany, has even agreed to give it a try. Saskia and I just laid in the grass and watched. (Ok, we really laid on a blanket) What are we watching? Well, nothing really. Unfortunatley, we laid in the grass for about an hour and a half and saw nothing but a bunch of birds flying around. Heard nothing but more of those turkeys that I mentioned before, cows, and some crazy bird. I decided to call it a mocking bird. Towards the end of our evening this bird started making this echoing eerie laughing sound as it went from one edge of the tree line to the other. Back and forth and around and around that thing went.

When we got back to the cars we could hear the coyotes come out singing their song as if they were relieved that we finally left the field.

I will say that is was a better way to spend the evening then watching tv. Saskia said that hunting is just like fishing. Sitting around and waiting, then nothing happens.
After hunting we went to Dan Jones' grandma's house for dinner. She is a lovely woman. I was so thankful that she made dinner for everyone. ~jacky

Our friends, Dan and Brandi Jones, invited us out to their property for a hot dog roast. It is out by Lake Cocolalla. Since it is quite a distance from town, we were reminded how dark the night sky can be.

Hannah and Timothy sitting by the fire

While there, we could hear the sounds of the frogs and wild turkeys echoing from beyond the trees. It was nice to lean back in my chair and stare at the stars. There are so many stars out in the country. ~jacky

Kirk and Aaron pose by the fire

I always have something to say. Then I decided to start blogging and sure enough, my mind decided to go blank. I found this clip art on poster.4teachers.org and thought it really showed what state of mind I was in. It is kind of refreshing really. Imagine going through life without any stresses; just kind of meandering through. I shall treasure this moment for as long as I can before life comes comes rushing back in and sending me back to a state of reality. ~jacky