Mom's Blueberry Pie Recipe

Ingredients:
3 cups blueberries
1 unbaked 9" deep-dish pie crust
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter

Directions:
Put pie crust in your pie dish (I like Pillsbury's pie crusts!) and fill with blueberries.  Set aside.
Combine sugar, flour & salt.  Add eggs & sour cream.  Stir.  Spoon over berries.
Combine 1/2 c. sugar & 1/2 c. flour, cut in butter with blender until mixture resembles course meal.  Sprinkle evenly over sour cream mix.  Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes.

Witness to a Miracle

Throughout my life, I have seen and felt God work in many ways.  He has provided for us in ways too numerous to count.  He has protected us from seen and unseen danger more times than we know.  He has guided and directed us in our marriage and careers.  He has created through us new life in Micah and in baby McKenzie (even if she hasn't made her debut yet!).  However, although I have known that God is also a healer and have prayed for Him to heal family and friends, I have never experienced it first hand like I did these last few days.

At 10am Thursday, Eli went under for his cranial decompression surgery.  I had my first update from a nurse a couple hours later saying, they made the first incision at 11am.  By 12:50pm, the nurse was calling me to tell me Dr. Camarata - Eli's neurosurgeon - was ready to meet with me!  I was so shocked, and even more so when he told us (Eli's parents and myself) how smoothly everything went and that he did not have to cut into the dura (the lining between the brain and skull which would have almost doubled Eli's recovery time and chances of infection, etc.).  He had made a long incision on Eli's neck, removed part of the skull and parts of the top 2 vertebrae and then ran an ultrasound.  The ultrasound showed that Eli's cerebral tonsils were now moving up and down freely and that his cerebral fluid was moving very well, so they sewed and stapled him back up!

Eli spent the next few hours in recovery while he woke up and waited to go to an ICU room.  That was probably the hardest part for me because I knew he was done and yet I couldn't see him yet!  A very kind nurse took pity on me later in the afternoon and snuck me back in recovery to see him when he woke up.

Once he was awake and in his ICU room, Eli almost immediately wanted a cheeseburger (I thought this was an excellent sign!)  I spent the night with him in a recliner in the ICU room, not the most comfortable place for a pregnant belly, but I was so thrilled to be there with him.  I've never been so thankful to have my snoring husband next to me!  ;-)

Friday, Eli continued to surprise everyone by walking, doing stairs, and sitting up for much of the day.  He got moved out of ICU and into a private regular room in the neuroscience unit.  He did pay for all his activity a bit that evening when the pain and exhaustion caught up to him, but when Micah came to visit, he definitely perked right up again!

Micah and I headed home Friday night to have a night in our own beds; and I repacked my bag and was ready to spend another night with Eli in the hospital.  So you can imagine my surprise when he called me to tell me he was getting discharged today.  When the doctor took off his bandage today, she was so surprised that she told Eli he could go home today if he wanted!  And of course he did!

So by 2:30pm (just 50 hours after this crazy surgery!), Eli was in my car and we were headed home!  I still think I might wake up from this wonderful dream.

For the next 2 weeks, Eli is not allowed to drive or lift anything over 5 lbs.  The main thing is for him to sleep and sleep and sleep, which shouldn't be a problem with his prescriptions of muscle relaxers and pain meds!  I think being in his own bed is already doing him a world of good.  He got up briefly for dinner and a shower and is now back asleep.

As for me, I couldn't be happier to have the whole family back under one roof.  Cooper and Denver (the dogs) are lying on the couch next to me as I type this.  I can hear Micah breathing on the monitor and Eli snoring upstairs (I don't need a monitor to hear that... lol!)  Only the girls are awake (Little Kenzie is kicking me right now!)  This is all I could have hoped for my Mother's Day tomorrow!

God is so incredibly good.  I know none of this would have been possible without the MANY, MANY prayers we have received (and continue to receive) from our friends and family all over the world!  When doctors (even neurosurgeons), nurses, physical therapists use words like "shocked," "surprised," or "amazed," there is only one explanation.  Our amazing heavenly Father was showing off a bit these last few days when He healed Eli as quickly as He did!  And even with the residual swelling from the surgery, Eli's nystagmus is already markedly better and so is his balance!  It will be amazing to see what his follow-up appointment in 10 days reveals!

So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all of your prayers, thoughts, love, and support.  We have felt them these last days in a real and powerful way.

Book Review: "In the Eye of the Storm"

In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Love how Max Lucado makes God so REAL.

One of my favorite chapters was "Why God Smiles" in which Lucado writes "I'm not one who easily envisions a smiling God. A weeping God, yes. An angry God, OK. A might God, you bet. But a chuckling God? .... What do I think he was doing when he stretched the neck of the giraffe? An exercise in engineering? What do I think he had in mind when he told the ostrich where to put his head? Spelunking? What do I think he was doing when he designed the mating call of an ape? Or the eight legs of the octopus? And what do I envision on his face when he saw Adam's first glance at Eve? A yawn? Hardly."

Throughout the book, Lucado gives examples of Jesus' interaction with people to show us that our almighty God really does understand us and that no matter what we are facing - even in the eye of the storm - He is there with us and has been there before.

So here's to a smiling God that loves us more than we will ever understand this side of heaven!

View all my reviews

Chiari Malformation

Well, time to resurrect this blog to update you all on something going on in our lives right now, and hopefully you will join us in prayer!

About a year ago, Eli noticed that he occasionally got "dizzy" when he used his right peripheral vision. Thought it was vertigo and ignored it. Gradually though it got more and more frequent. He finally paid enough attention to it to realize that it was basically like his eyes were "resetting" whenever he looked to the right. Went to his eye doctor who called it a NYSTAGMUS and referred him to a neuro-optomologist who referred him to get an MRI. At which point we found out it was CHIARI MALFORMATION. (Which though bad was better than our worst fears of it being a brain tumor or something!)

Anyway, CHIARI is basically a condition that some people are born with but doesn't usually cause any problems until 20s or 30s in which the skull is too small for the brain. In Eli's case, his brain is actually pushing through his spinal column because it has no room in his skull. This is causing his vision thing, poor balance, and headaches.

We met with a neurosurgeon, Dr. Camarata, at KU Med who will be doing decompression surgery on Thursday, May 10th. They will remove part of Eli's skull and part of the C1 and C2 vertebrae. Recovery is 6 weeks unless they also have to cut into the dura (the lining between the skull and brain) which would put it at 2.5 months. We won't know if they have to cut into the dura until after they are inside though. It's certainly scary, but we know God will take care of everything!

Surgery next week will be about 3-4 hours long and then require 3-5 days in the hospital.  Then 2 weeks without lifting anything over 5 lbs (Eli & Micah are going to be in severe rough-housing withdrawals!).  Then... we just don't know!  Eli is young and healthy though so we are hoping for a speedy recovery.  Although because his job as a paramedic obviously requires a LOT of lifting, he will probably be off the full 6-12 weeks.  And 12 weeks from now, we are expecting the arrival of our little girl - around July 30th - so it's going to be a crazy few months for us!!!

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Book Reivew: Soulprint

Soulprint: Discovering Your Divine Destiny by Mark Batterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a pretty quick read and useful for thinking in terms of what God wants out of your life. Mark Batterson uses a lot of good examples from David's life to encourage readers to be the people God created us to be.

I really love Mark Batterson, but I enjoyed some of his other books much better (In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars and of course The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears) so admittedly this one was slightly disappointing compared to those 2, or perhaps I just needed those 2 more than this one at this point in my life!

However, if you are at a point in your life (we're all there sometime!) where you are really struggling to find out what your purpose is, what you should be doing, and really just wanting to hear from God, then I would recommend it!

View all my reviews

“I received this book for free from the publisher’s Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review”.

Gizmo the Frog

I just celebrated my 28th birthday, which means that my 1st baby just celebrated his 8th!  My 1st baby is a White's Dumpy Tree Frog.

I got Gizmo for Christmas in 2003.  I was a sophomore in college.  He went with me every where.  We were allowed fish in our dormitories at Wash U, so I reasoned that because he lived in a fish tank (even if it was a 10 gallon one!  haha) that he would qualify.

During the summer, when I went back and forth between my parents' houses, Gizmo had a tank at each house and traveled with me in his little portable container on my heated seats.

He won Pet of the Day in 2004:  http://petoftheday.com/archive/2004/July/23.html

Like I said, Gizmo is now 8 years old.  Incredible for a tree frog!  He is the lowest maintenance pet you could ever ask for, but he is kind of ornery.  Once, he crawled into my printer and I had to take the whole thing apart to get to him.  These days, he hides in his water fountain until 10pm or so, when he comes out to sit in his rock pool or hunt crickets.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little bit about Gizmo with you and to spread the love of having a pet frog if anyone out there is interested!

11 Months

Ooops.  My last post was 5 months ago?!?!?

How does that happen?

What have I been so busy with?

Besides my personal real estate business, Hosack-Casey Team real estate business, Crown Realty administrative work, KAN Concierge web design & computer repair; I have also fed Micah some 1000+ meals and changed approximately 1200 diapers, read to him about 150 times, played peek-a-boo, and ball, and the drop-and-pick-up game more times than I can remember.

I don't know where the last 5 months went... LOL

I do know that being a mother has sped up time.  No 11 months in my entire life have ever went faster.

If you know me at all, you know that I love Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  I have listened to every single sermon he has preached (or at least all that are available online) for the last 4 years or so.  Today, I listened to this one: http://marshill.com/media/luke/jesus-and-children

Here's a clip that I loved:


He is the MOST GLORIOUS inconvenience I could ever have asked for... happy 11 months Micah Paul!  Can't believe we're 1 month away from your 1st birthday!