Hiking

   

Sister

Saltanat – Dear Sister

She gave her heart to Vinny and to us.  Now our hearts go out to her.   We love you Saltanat.  Just like Vinny, you will never be forgotten.

Baby Boy

My little man has a bad cough and it's breaking my heart. I have gone from a total psycho-freak don't be sick around me because I don't believe you to a mush ball. I used to want to wave a magic wand to make people better because they irritated me with their illnesses. Now I want to wave a magic wand for my son because it hurts to see him in any discomfort. My poor little thing. So perfect.

God IS Faithful

God is faithful (period).

Reflection

Another Reflection

Reflection

Coming Soon…

To a hospital near us -

Christopher Vincent Aiken

Zac & Stephanie are expecting a boy due February 2, 2010.

When Henry was 5 Months Old – So Cute

Pemaquid Point

Mesmerized

This is pretty funny and maybe a little embarrassing down the road – Henry is engrossed in Dirty Dancing.  He is captivated by the music and movement.  Too bad we don’t have a video camera.

My Love

From Our Kayaking Trip

Henry - The Six Month Old

It's been a whirlwind couple of days or maybe weeks. Henry turned six months old yesterday and his mother neglected to post on it. Naughty mother! Well, he is healthy and growing like crazy. Thank God. He's trying hard to talk. He has been since birth. My mom thinks that's a little scary. When he starts, he might never stop.

From the Kayaking Trip with My Mother

Think on These Things

Phil 4:8 NAS
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Some Things I've been Thinking About

Proverbs 10:22 King James Version
The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Ecc 3:14 KJV
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Rom 8:31
If God be for us, who shall be against us?

Isaiah 41:10
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:13
For I, the Lord your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.”

Deut 31:8
And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed

Acts 5:39
but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.

Thank You

Thank you to all those who have served, had family members serve and especially those who have given their lives for our protection. 

My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

May The Great Comforter heal your hearts.

To my brave brother – we miss you Vinny.  Thank you for all you did for the fight against terror.

Dave’s Sisters

Meandering Maine test site

Testing My New Tool

I am testing out this new tool Dave found.  I just did my last post using it and now trying another

Ron and Barbara are very sweet people.  They took Henry and I on a tour of the Pemaquid area.  The picture is from Little Beach – small, picturesque and there are even dogs on the beach!

Ron and Barbara at the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  The caution tape was put up during a recent storm and record high tide.

 

Barbara in front of the Lighthouse.  She was nice enough to ride in back with a not so happy Henry.

The Weavers

Ron Weaver – Artist from New Harbor & Arizona

Painting of Ron’s Daughter and Granddaughters in His Studio

Ron and Barbara with Henry

Pictures

Aunt Mary

A picture Aunt Rita sent me of Aunt Mary... I'm not sure who the baby is but he reminds me of Henry... see Henry does have other genes than just Dave's ;)

Georgie Porgie

Memory -

Vinny and I loved going to George's Store in the very small suburb of the VERY small town in which we lived (haha suburb). We used to sing Georgie Porgie to the older gentleman who owned it and sometimes changed the words to things I won't publish. It was also the place where the babysitter I mentioned in an earlier blog, the woman who bought my mom groceries, leaned into the car one day to say hello. What did Vinny do? He asked my mom why she had warts all over her face in front of the woman. The sad thing is she DID have warts all over her face and my mom was speechless. Oh the things out of Vinny's mouth.

Himself A.B. Simpson

HIMSELF

by A.B. Simpson

Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

Once ’twas painful trying, Now ’tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost.
Once ’twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;
Once ’twas constant drifting, Now my anchor’s cast.

Once ’twas busy planning, Now ’tis trustful prayer;
Once ’twas anxious caring, Now He has the care.
Once ’twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;
Once ’twas constant asking, Now ’tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.

Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He’s mine;
Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, Now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, Safe within the veil.

The Everlasting Arms by A.B. Simpson

I was looking for another poem and found this - I'm not sure the person who posted this has the author's last name spelled correctly...

Are you sunk in depths of sorrow
Where no arm can reach so low;
There is One whose arms almighty
Reach beyond thy deepest woe.
God the Eternal is thy refuge,
Let Him still thy wild alarms;
Underneath thy deepest sorrow
Are the everlasting arms.

Other arms grow faint and weary,
These can never faint nor fail;
Others reach our mounts of blessing,
These our lowest, loneliest vale.
Oh, that all might know His friendship!
Oh, that all might see His charms!
Oh, that all might have beneath them
Jesus' everlasting arms.

Underneath us - oh, how easy!
We have not to mount on high,
But to sink into His fullness
And in trustful weakness lie;
And we find our humbling failures
Save us from the strength that harms;
We may fail, but underneath us
Are the everlasting arms.

Arms of Jesus, hold me closer
To Thy strong and loving breast,
Till my spirit on Thy bosom
Finds it's everlasting rest;
And when time's last sands are sinking,
Shield my heart from all alarms,
Softly whispering, "Underneath thee
Are the everlasting arms."

By A. B. Simpson

Deut. 33:27 The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms..

Mary Ann Galkowski

Mary Ann Galkowski, 52, of Broadway, Newport, died Sunday, September 6, 2009 surrounded by her family at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence after a brief illness. Born in Omaha, NE on October 18, 1956, she was a daughter of Robert Edward Galkowski and Darlene M. (Kueny) Galkowski of Portsmouth, RI.
Mary attended Jesus Savior School in Newport and was a graduate of Rogers High School, class of 1974. She also attended Salve Regina University where she sang in the choir. She was a Certified Nursing Assistant and worked at various local Newport nursing homes. Her hobbies included tennis, piano, singing and playing the clarinet. She was a loving daughter, sister, and friend.

Besides her parents, she leaves her sisters Rita Kelly and her husband William of Groton, CT, Teresa Warburg and her husband Michael of Westerly, RI, and Ann Galkowski of Middletown, RI; her brothers Lawrence Galkowski and his wife Joann of Rockland, ME, Robert Galkowski and his wife Kris of Colorado, Gerald Galkowski of Newport, and Peter Galkowski and his wife Sheila Randall of Middletown; and numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many dear friends, especially Joanie Price and John Denman.

She was the aunt of the late Vincent Paul Galkowski.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 11am, in St. Joseph’s Church, Mann Ave & Broadway, Newport. Burial at St. Columba Cemetery, Brown’s Ln, Middletown. Visiting hours will be held on Thursday, September 10, from 4-7pm in the O’Neill-Hayes Funeral Home, 465 Spring St., Newport, RI, 02840.

Donations can be made in Mary's memory to The Carmelite Sisters, c/o Sister Joann, One Maria Hall Drive, Dansville, Pa. 17821

See You in Heaven Aunt Mary!

I learned this past Friday that my Aunt Mary (father's sister) had fallen ill suddenly and might not make it. She went home to be with the Lord Sunday afternoon. She left the presence of her mother, her sisters Teresa and Annie, her brother Peter and his wife Sheila and walked into the arms of Jesus. It's amazing one is healed instantly and completely. In a moment when they are present with the Lord. See you soon Aunt Mary (time is but a grain of sand).

Our First Big Scare....

With Many more to come I'm sure.

We have had little testings (we like to call them) the past 7 days. About a week ago Dave tried to upgrade our windows and something didn't take. Within moments hundreds of hours of work for my new business and, most important, most of my pictures of Henry and my brother Vinny were gone. The computer people fixed the computer but all of that stuff was still missing. Pretty disappointing. Tuesday we did get the good news that after asking the computer people to search the corrupt data again, they did find all of that stuff. I had a wonderful day meeting with new customers for my new business. I don't know if God gives me the heads up in my spirit or what, but all day I had this gut feeling something was going to happen to Henry. I don't usually have that feeling (I know it's pretty normal for new mothers to be paranoid). Well, I was meeting with these amazing new clients in the afternoon and Dave called saying Henry wasn't too happy. I looked at the clock and realized it wasn't afternoon, it was early evening! I raced home feeling very guilty. Henry was great. Seemed happy. I made a delicious dinner, fed Henry, and just as I was about to begin eating, Henry started violently vomiting. His clothes were soaked, the chair and pillow was soaked. I didn't flip out. I took him down stairs to change his clothes. Then he vomited all over our bed. He started crying out in pain. I called my mom. When I was on the phone with her, his whole body started heaving from his gut. To say I was worried was an under statement. We searched for a thermometer. Of course the battery was dead. We ran next door to Molly's and she started searching but couldn't find one. In the mean time, we tried to give him children's Tylenol to help his pain. He started heaving vomiting again. My mom agreed we should take him to the emergency room to calm our nerves. Henry went extremely lethargic. This kid just doesn't act like that. We were terrified. We made it to the emergency room and, thank You God, they got us right in. The waiting room was packed and if you have ever been to the emergency room before in this area, you know it's hours before you even get a room. The check in nurse seemed to think he was okay because he didn't have a fever. Our nurse for the evening hooked him up to a monitor. She said she thought he might have this horrible virus that was going around. She had had it and was very ill. We were feeling better. She said his heart rate looked good and not to be alarmed unless it went close to 180. She was wonderful. She left the room for a LONG time as they often do when you're in an emergency room. Henry started heaving again in pain and his heart rate started hitting 180. The alarm was going off and I was flipped out. Finally I went to find them. The nurse calmed me and said it was normal for what he was going through. We waited for the blood work to happen. When it did I had to leave the room. It took three of them to hold him down and draw the blood from his little, precious arm. They wanted him to drink fluids but he wouldn't take any, even breast feeding. Around 10:30 an xray was done. He had just eaten a little bit before his xray and was in pain but didn't vomit. After all his tests we waited and waited. Everything seemed promising and we felt we probably over reacted but were happy to be safe then sorry. Then the ER doctor came in to go over everything. It started out good. Then he said Henry's white blood cells were very elevated, his glucose was high and his xray was abnormal. Okay. So many thing went through my mind. I was surprised that at this point I remained way calmer than I expected. The doctor said he was going to call Maine Medical to see what they thought and to see if Henry would be sent down there for more testing. Having your child sent to the children's hospital is not what a mother or father wants to hear. On the other hand, if your child is sick, you would much rather have him be there. The doctor told us Henry might have a bacterial infection, it may even be in the blood (which takes 48 hours to figure out) or he might have some rare intestinal issue that happens in infants. All the tests were pointed to the latter. I called my mom and she had been calm up until this point, but she started to flip out. Surprisingly, again, we were some what calm waiting to hear if we were going to Portland. The doctor came back in to tell us that he was ordering an IV and for Henry to be sent to Portland by ambulance. Maine Med did want to see him. Alarming. Then we waited hours for the IV to be hooked up and the high dose of antibiotics to be hooked up to the IV. Finally, Henry and I were put on a stretcher and moved to the ambulance. I saw the paramedics waiting in the ER for hours before we left. Dave and I both agreed we hoped they wouldn't be the ones taking us. They were. They ended up being really nice. As nice as they were, I was a very, very, very stressed out mother. My eyes never left the monitor for more than a few seconds. The thought of being out of a hospital when they were saying my child might have this or that (trust me, you would have been frightened by the doctors description) freaked me out. I did manage to drum up a spiritual conversation with the EMT. I always feel things happen for a reason even though I didn't want that to happen with every ounce of my being. I would have lived in a paper box for the rest of my life not to see my baby so sick and thinking it might be worse than we had thought. The knots didn't come out of my stomach until we reached Maine Med and the Barbara Bush wing around 3 am. When the doctors came in to introduce themselves, Henry seemed to have improved dramatically. He was flirting with the female doctor and that made me very happy. I was told by the doctors and the nurse not to co sleep with Henry. I didn't listen. He hadn't slept in a crib yet, I wasn't going to make him after being in so much trauma. The head doctor came in around 7 am. The white blood cell thing was really what bothered us the most. She explained why it might spike and suspected that it would be back to normal when he had his blood tests at noon. It was sounding better and we were exhausted to say the least. Henry slept a lot, Dave slept a little and I didn't sleep. (It was so heart wrenching to see his little arm in a splint for the IV- I didn't mention how it was putting in the IV. HORRIBLE). My mom showed up around 11:30 and the blood tests came around noon. It was great they only had to do a heal prick that time. The lab tech thought it would only be 1.5 hours before we would hear. We waited and waited. Around 3 I started to get pushy because I wanted to go home if he was okay. I really was trying to be pleasant but the nurse wasn't the nicest person on earth if you know what I mean. She finally printed the report off and handed it to me without going over it. I think she was trying to be mean, because it was all in acronyms and medical jargon. I could read it enough to see that his white blood cell count was still high. I started to flip out internally. There was no doctor showing up to explain it. I called my mom and she decided to turn around and come back. I went out of the room to flag down a doctor. I found one and she said she was discharging Henry. Henry had a bad virus and it just had to run its course. Earlier the doctor had a completely different story about she thought Henry's intestine did do that rare thing but had corrected itself. Okay. Not liking the situation. The head doctor who told the first story came in and explained why his white blood cells were still elevated. Why the doctor in Rockport was alarmed because his immature white blood cells were so high when they took the first test. Although his white blood cells were still high, the ratio of the immature had decreased, so things were looking better. Phew. We felt better. We got discharged. Dave was a hero the whole time, although I think he was just as scared as I was. He drove us home. We got some dinner, but I couldn't even eat even though I had been starving. I went to sleep with Henry and woke up only a few times until seven this morning. We were praising God for the results. We were thanking God for all the people who prayed around the state and around the country. One funny part is about a mile out of the parking garage, Henry started having serious, come out of your diaper diarrhea. We had to pull over into a parking lot in Portland and practically give him a bath.