Please add Bill Moser to your prayer list. He is fighting a blood infection and is in the IC unit here at Harrisburg Hospital. He is currently on a breathing machine.

I am feeling better and appreciate your prayers. I had migraines for for almost a week and kidney/flank pain from swelling. The catheter treatment yesterday really helped and physical therapy is also very beneficial. Both problems are somewhat better and I felt more like myself today.
Martha and her friend have started a video series on "Boundaries", I have joined them and find the lessons useful in my dealing with our children. Children will draw every bit of energy from you,if you allow it. Ex: Anna told Hannah that she wasn't going to clean her room because Mommy would eventually. So while she is grounded,till it is clean, she makes it messier and messier, thinking I will give up and clean it myself.
The family councelor I see has been drilling me with the same instructions week after week. He wants the children to take a more active role with the household chores,also he emphises that they need to be respondsible for their things and messes. Anna had gone with me this time. On the way home she was very quiet, when all of the sudden she stated,"Mommy, you shouldn't talk to that pastor anymore". I asked her why, she replied," because he is going to make you mean". She thought that if I took his advice it would make me mean. Instead, I believe being firm will make mommy and daddy less irritated.
This may seem like quite simple advice, but when you are within the storm the rain can blind you. I was just trying to get by, so I ignored a lot of pathetic behaviour.
Hopefully, working along side Bruce, we can get back to what we know is right, and gain more respect with our children as we do so. Peace comes from order and respect for one another.
If you have any good parenting advice, please post it here to share with us and others who read. Love in Christ, Mary

It has been quite a while since I posted. Our family is growing and changing. Samuel is looking more seriously at his future, Sarah is hoping to go to Spring Vale this coming fall and Abby is so busy with 3 jobs we barely see her.
Bruce has finally made an appointment to pursue treatment. He seems to feel better about some of the options for prostate cancer. He is looking for the least evasive, and least amount of recovery time.
I am receiving bladder infusions through a catheter 3 times a week because of IC, loss of the urinary tract lining. The left kidney is swollen and causes a lot of pain as it presses on my ribs. Hershey Medical's dept.of urology has me scheduled,in 2 weeks, for a test to see if I have kidney reflux. It would explain the distended kidney. The doctor there feels fairly sure that is the reason and told me they will most likely do a procedure to correct a valve.
Physical therapy for the head and neck injury also is a three times a week appointment that I really will be glad to be done with. there is just to much gardening and summer/spring stuff to be doing. Going to appointments is not my idea of spring time fun. ( :
I have the camper well stocked and am excited about taking it for some outings! Bruce is finally getting more work,so I am not sure if there will be time.
The health problems that I have been going through have caused me to face my mortality. Perhaps God allows such times in our lives to help us get a better perspective and to change our focus back on Him! I hope your Sabbath is full of those things the Savior wants to share with you!

Thank you once again for your prayers! The head aches are not as intense and that is a big plus! March and April are busy months as we remember Our Lord's wonderful sacrifice on our behalf!

Thank you for your prayers on my behalf. I wish I could say I am better. The headaches continue and have caused continuous nausea. The physical therapy will probably help eventually, but for the moment they have aggravated the pain. The therapist said to not look down at all and to support the head whenever sitting. He also told me not to swim even on my back, I thought that it would be good exercise,but he said it would still strain the neck to much. He is asking very little from me, but it takes only a little movement to fire up the pain. The x-ray results showed trouble in 4 vertebrate in the neck and now the doctor asked me to see a neurologist. The therapist said the center of the injury is located where the skull meets the neck bones.
But I know I am not alone, so many loved ones seem to be having pain right now. Back issues, migraines and serious body pain are some of the problems other dear ones are suffering from.
Bruce has been terrific and very helpful. He is a real blessing to me and keeps me smiling!
Love to you all in the Lord!

Just a note for prayer on my behalf. I fell in Mexico and hit my head on a marble tiled floor. Immediately my neck hurt. the doctor at the resort gave me some strong medicine and said I should be better in 3 days. Well to make a long story short, it is now almost 2 weeks and it is worse. A CAT scan showed no active bleeding thankfully, but our doc sent me to the ER last night because the pain in my head and neck was extreme. They treated me with some very strong IV pain and nausea meds. I am home now trying to rest, with neck brace for support. I am feeling somewhat better but am on a lot of medication.

Hope everyone has a restful Sabbath, love to you all in Christ.

Celebrating 25 years of love and commitment!

I haven't written for a while for several reasons. The first being that my laptop was broke and Glen Skinner fixed it for me, thank you Glen! The second was lack of energy and time.
I do want to share with you some of our wonderful time away and the many blessings we received along the way. I can only touch on a few. There were so many I would bore you with all that excited us.
We started our trip with a week in Houston at Lake Conroe. We stay in the condos where Daniel and Kelsi were married. Daniel and Kelsi stayed with us there and Kelsi and I prepared dinner almost every day. Some dinners included Kelsi's family, some included her parents and Bruce's sister Marsha and brother in-law Mike. One evening Dennis and Kathy took us to a beautiful place for dinner along the lake and by a colorfully lit pier. There they have a McDonalds, Taco Bell and several other restaurants for boaters to pull up to. Marsha took us to a Japanese steak house and Anna really enjoyed the show as her food was being cooked infront of her!
Kelsi bravely drove Anna and I to Houston's aquarium on a warmer day. It was great fun and very beautiful! Anna was terrified to go on the train ride through the glass shark tunnel, but after going through she loved it and went again!
Daniel and Bruce worked most of the week, mainly at John and June Crisp's home. They loved working there because John cooks very well and fed them great lunches!
On Sabbath we visited the Conroe Church of God Seventh Day and Bruce spoke. The real name of the town is Cut and Shoot or Cut N Shoot(depending on who you talk to), but they use Conroe instead for the name of the church. A man who fought Floyd Patterson for the world heavy weight championship boxing title in the 60's attends there, Roy Harris is his name, he is now a lawyer. It was great fun to hear about some of his experiences!
Tuesday we left for Cancun. Apple Vacation agency had arranged everything for this trip and they were very helpful!
On the hour and half ride to the resort we began to see more and more military police with machine guns along the road and then our van was stopped twice for a security check. We finally found out that this was not normal and that the reason for all the security was because Mexico's president was staying at one of the resorts close to where we were going.
When we arrived at the hotel a gentleman helped me out of the van and said, "Welcome to paradise!" I thought I had arrived at "Fantasy Island" for a moment! ( : I expected to here someone say, "Da plane, da plane!!!"
But as we enjoyed the week I had to agree it really was a special kind of paradise, one to visit many times over, but not a place to live.
We took 3 days of excursions. Thursday we did the Mayan Adventure, snorkeling in a cave, then down a fresh water river that meets the ocean. There we swam using fins, we swam a mile all total, seeing beautiful tropical fish and then sea turtles, it is very hard to express how beautiful it all was! The knowledgeable guide then drove us to a cenote (a fresh water sink hole). The Yucatan's surface is made of a swiss cheese like limestone. There are no above ground rivers, only underground rivers, the rain just filters down through the limestone. At some places the surface gives way creating a sink hole or opening to an underground river or cave. These rivers are very clear and blue. This one had many tropical fresh water fish. After we were finished snorkeling at this beautiful spot we were taken to a hut close by and served a small traditional buffet. We noticed little patches of corn growing amongst the jungle like vegetation. The we saw why, nearby was a stick hut where a family lives who must help with the care of the place. A grubby little boy looked curiously out the door at us and then smiled shyly, I wanted to hug him!
The Second outing on Friday was to be a four hour, deep sea fishing trip. When we arrived we were coupled with four other people. The one man from this group of four was irate that his group did not have the boat to themselves, causing us to feel embarrassed and unwanted on the boat. He insisted on troll fishing for the entire four hours, even though the boat's mates told him it was not the season for marlin or swordfish. I took a nice nap in the cabin, thinking about Jesus sleeping in the bottom of the boat. But I felt terrible for Bruce who had not touched a rod the entire time, and sat staring at the water as we coasted up and down the shoreline.
When we returned to the marina I insisted we go back to the charter office and tell them what happened, Bruce agreed. The office coordinator already had heard about our problem and asked if they could make it up to us by taking us out on a private boat for 3 hours of bottom fishing. We grabbed some lunch and caught a different boat for another try at fishing. This time we had a super time! We caught 8 fish total, including strawberry groupers(a beautiful orange and red spotted fish), a tuna and other varieties of tropical fish, I did not know the name for. I also caught some fan coral, and the captain's mate insisted I keep it. We gave the fish to the captain and his mates. They had treated us very well and we were sure their families could use them. They had stayed out till sunset, apologizing that we didn't catch as many as they hoped to. We were thrilled with this fishing trip anyways and felt very blessed!
Sabbath we visited the ruins at Chichen Itza(a Mayan civilization), and swam in a beautiful sink hole. The water was 100 feet down and then 80 feet deep. I really enjoyed diving (not from 100 feet up though) into this crystal clear blue water. I lay on my back and swim across taking in the breathtaking view of tree roots dropping from up high and small water falls here and there pouring in from springs in the walls of this dream like swimming hole.
The other days we spent at the resort snorkeling at the beach, there were plenty of coral to explore and I loved just staying very still and watch the habits of the very colorful fish. Some of my favorites were the blue tangs and colorful parrot fish. If you stood still schools of fish would swim all around you.
We also explored the marina, where we saw several manatees and dolphins. Some time was spent just relaxing on the beach. Bruce read several novels, mostly westerns.
We were given coupons for spa treatments, so I had one the first day and one the last day we were there.
There were 5 restaurants on the resort to choose from, some inside and some outside. All had excellent food, served artistically. Bruce did not like the steak, but I eat fish and chicken, so it did not bother me. He found plenty of other entrees he liked and was very happy as well with the food.
We returned to Texas Tuesday evening to a very happy Anna. We snuggled all evening as we shared stories. Kelsi had taken Anna to the zoo and several other very interesting places. Anna also spent a lot of time at Kelsi's family property watching over some new puppies and playing with Kelsi's 4 year old nephew.
We stayed with Kelsi's grandparents and had a great visit.
We returned to PA Thursday, March 4th. It was sweet to see all our dear brothers and sisters on Sabbath, but now it is time to get back to work!
We had a wonderful time, and I would like to say it cured me of my health problems, but I still shake when I am tired, if I am hot or if I don't get sleep or am stressed.
So I start out my first week back with appointments every day this week for test on nerves and muscles, 2 MRIs and several other tests including more blood work.
I do have a different perspective now though and a stronger determination to find order and contentment in our household. It is always good to take a step back, for a while, from your routine, it gives you a fresh look at the world around you. I am extremely thankful to the Lord for the wonders He has shown us and hope to not soon forget what we have learned.