Tummy Trouble and Other Fun Things

Hello fellow blogging friends :) I've been in kind of a blogging funk lately--haven't had much to write that I want the public to read....no offense or anything :) Anyways, I need you guys to pray for me. I've been having major stomach problems over the last month or so. It's been pretty awful & very painful. So I went to see my doctor & they did some bloodwork & that came back normal. Now I have to do a stool sample (sounds delightful, huh?) this weekend & then I'm getting an ultrasound on Wednesday morning to check out my stomach & my pelvic cavity. If that comes back normal then I have to get a colonoscopy. So please be praying for all of this. I'm so ready to have some relief. My doctor said that it sounds like something with my gallbladder, but hopefully we'll know for sure by next week. Thanks for praying!

In other very cool news--God has worked out our car situation! We knew that we had to sell the CR-V to get out of that monthly payment so that we could take care of some debt. We had no idea how we would be a one car family with Matt's crazy work schedule, but we were trusting God to work those things out. And that's exactly what He did!!! My parents are going to buy the CR-V & finish out our payments for us. They're trying to downgrade, b/c they have 3 cars right now. So they're buying the CR-V & GIVING us my Dad's old jeep. We were in tears the other night just praising God for this major blessing. So.....to swap cars that means I have to go to Florida next week--YEAH!!

Matt & I are going to drive & meet my Dad in Pensacola & swap cars & then I'm going to keep driving to FL with my Dad & will be staying for a week. Next Friday, the 7th, will be my Mom's last day of chemo!! We're all just so proud of my Mom for enduring all of this! I'm excited that I'll be there to celebrate the end of this! After that point she will undergo tests to see if more chemo is needed--please join us in praying for healing & for NO MORE CHEMO!!

I guess that's about it. I'm still having problems with getting my videos of Ava up on dropshots, so hopefully I can get that figured out this weekend. Adios :)

Dowensky

Hey friends! Some of our best best friends, Aaron & Jamie, have just begun the process to adopt a sweet little 2 year old boy from Haiti. They just started a new blog to chronicle his adoption. Go check it out & keep them in your prayers as they begin this very exciting & overwhelming journey!

Happy Half-Birthday Kid :)

Hey friends! Today is Ava's half birthday! She is 18 months old. I have been a little sappy about it today--seems so crazy that she's already that old. Her new words this week are "hot" and "no". That last one has been fun, let me tell you! And everything is hot. It's pretty cute. Her food is hot. It's hot outside. The inside of the car is hot when we get in. The oven is hot. I love it :) So for your viewing pleasure today I thought I would upload a couple of videos from the last couple of weeks. But for some reason I can only access one of them right now, so I'll try the other 2 later. This is a denial of poop. Pretty funny....



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My Rock Star Boyfriend



Ok friends. If you have known me for more than 5 minutes you know that I have been in love with Phil Joel (formerly of the Newsboys, although sometimes still with the Newsboys :) for almost half of my life. I'd like to give you a breakdown--a chronological calendar of events--of our relationship. Here you go......(ps: more bullet points for you fans out there!)

• 1994: Phil Joel joins the Newsboys


• 1994: I lay eyes on Phil Joel for the first time on tv--actually on the making of the "Shine" video


• 1995: I see Newsboys for the first time in concert at the USF sundome


• 1995: Same day. My friends & I stalk down the Newsboys after their set & wait for them at their bus. Yes....I was a 15 year old groupie


• 1995: Also the same day. I touch Phil Joel's hair and arm. Oh my goodness--it is official. I AM IN LOVE. Love people.


• 1995: Same beautiful day. I take about 10,000 pictures with Phil Joel before being dragged away by security. PS....I LOVE him.


• 1995-2002: I attend every Newsboys concert that comes within 5 hours of me. And at each concert I get there hours early to have front row seats. I stand at the stage. I mouth, "I love you Phil Joel" every time he comes near me. I try to touch his shoes. I am IN LOVE people.


• 2000: My roomate gives me a life-size cardboard cutout of Phil Joel. He lives with me until I get married. When I had roomates he lived in my closet--my secret love. When I lived by myself he stayed with me in my bedroom. However--we remained pure--he slept in the extra bed :)


• 2000--2004: I buy Phil Joel's solo albums & rock out to them pretty much every time I'm in the car by myself.
• 2001: I carry my Phil with me to the Festival Con Dios concert. Although being a grown woman I am peer-pressured by the students in our ministry to leave him in the car. I cry silent tears.


• 2002: I get married to Matt Setliffe


• 2002: Matt Setliffe carries Phil Joel to the dumpster & tells me to move on.


• 2002: I see Phil Joel's wife at a concert. She is blond and beautiful. And being newly married myself I realize that the love affair is over. We will just be friends. And I'm ok with that. I have fallen more in love with Matt Setliffe than I ever was with Phil Joel. Plus Matt Setliffe will kiss me back.


• 2006: I find out that our best friends, spur58, have just signed to the same record label as Phil Joel. They mock me & say that maybe they'll get me an autograph. I'm still waiting guys.


• 2006: Christmas time. I get a message from Jamie, and then 3 minutes later get a message from Maris. THEY MET HIM!!!!!!! They were at a label Christmas party and he was there. And THEY TALKED TO HIM!!!!!!! I am insanely jealous. Matt Setliffe tells me to move on.


• 2007: The other day. I pull out my old Phil Joel cds that I have not listened to in at least a year. (I am trying to move on people....) I open the cd booklet.......and guess what I found???? A song. A song called "El Salvador". He had written it after going there on a mission trip with his wife. I had forgotten all about it. So all day long I listened to my old flame sing a beautiful song about the place of my daughter's birth. The place that is so dear & close to my heart right now. And I love him all over again. But not in a oh my gosh, you are so dang hot & I want to kiss you sort of way. But in a, wow. God is so funny. We really are friends--God has given us a heartbeat for the same place. Now how cool is that???


• ps....I still secretly LOVE you Phil Joel :)

Back to the Bullet Points

Hey friends. I have been meaning to post for awhile now, but I feel kind of overwhelmed by all that I wanted to say. And so I kept putting it off, and now I hardly even remember all those things I was going to say. So here goes. Who knows if this is even the half of it, but it's the best I can do on this Saturday morning :)

• Ava: I know that most people that read this blog are far more interested in Ava than the rest of us, so I will start with her. Oh, and I don't mind that, b/c I also think that she's pretty great! Ava is now 17 months old. Oh my goodness--time is flying by people. She has been so much fun lately. I feel like I'm getting a better hold of how to deal with her tantrums. READ: ignore her. So, now that we have that a little better under control, I feel like I'm enjoying these days of early toddlerhood much better now. She is walking & running around like crazy. One of her favorite things to do is pull Oliver's tail until he shrieks. I then have to find the cat from his hiding place & love on him until he starts breathing again. She also loves to talk to Daddy on her play phone. She walks around all day babbling to him on her phone. It is way too cute. She also loves shoes. She tries to put them on & then takes them off. Very fun :) She's fallen for Elmo & even notices him on diaper coupons and from a distance in the store. "Melmo" is her bestest friend right now--well, except for Lola of course!! She loves buttons, straps, doors & anything else she can manipulate. It is fun to watch her figure things out. She is talking like crazy too. She is a joy & is so much fun. However, I don't feel like I've sat down in about 3 months :)
  
• Married Stuff: Matt & I were able to get away earlier this week for a couple trip---NO BABY!! Our amazing friends Crystin & Ben watched Ava for us for 3 whole days so we could get away. We went to San Antonio & had such a fun time. I took tylenol pm & slept blissfully until after 9 both days. I haven't done that in, oh, 17 months. It was beautiful. We ate great food (including one of the top 15 burgers you should eat before you die here), went and saw the most amazing movie, Becoming Jane, went to a jazz club & just spent time together reading, talking, catching up. They were some of the greatest days I've had in my life. Thanks Ben & Crystin--you gave us such a precious gift!


• Adoption: We are well on our way to finishing our dossier paperwork--woo hoo! We are beginning our meetings with our psychologist next week. We found this lady who is a Christian & who has done lots of adoption psych testing before. God is so good to bring her across our path. So now we just have to get ahold of our police records, gather some documents, finish our psych visits, get our photo pages done & we will be done with our dossier. Then we will have to get everything notarized before sending them to their originating states for apostilling by the secretary of state. We are not going to hit our target of early September, but that's ok. We're getting closer to Bella every day & that's all that really matters. Plus, we're still a long way off with our funding, so we can't submit anything for awhile anyways. On to my next point:


• Our Finances: Early in our marriage we made some MAJOR money mistakes & now we have quite a bit of credit card debt. God has been on us very heavily about this in the last couple of weeks. We are missing out on so much by being tied up financially. So, in an effort to knock out some of that debt, we have decided to sell one of our cars. We won't really make anything on it, but it will get rid of a very large car payment every month. I had originally thought that we could do this to give us money for our adoption,but the more we prayed about it we felt that God wanted us to use that money every month to pay down our credit card debt. Ok God--but what about our adoption??? However, we know that this is what we need to do, so we are going to trust God with this. We feel like He is asking us to work on our finances & He will provide the adoption money. So...please pray for us as we work towards being debt free. It's going to take awhile, but we're committed to getting there. Also please pray for us as we go down to one car--it's going to be pretty inconvenient at times! Finally, please pray for the remaining $3500 that we need to send in our adoption paperwork. We are believing God for this money!!


• My Mama: She's doing ok--definitely ready to be done with chemo. Last week's passing out ordeal was very scary. Thankfully she is ok, and Emily was with her & kept a cool head while calling 911. Only one more round of chemo to go & then she'll undergo tests to see if she needs more. Please pray that all is well & that she needs NO MORE CHEMO!!


• Randomness:

1. I still love diet dp

2. I have fallen back in love with cereal. And chips & salsa. Hello old friends.

3. I think that Jane Austen is just amazing. I love everything she's written & I loved watching her life in Becoming Jane. Go see this movie--it was marvelous!!

4. The Alamo is very cool.

5. I wish I could sleep in more.

6. I don't pray enough.

7. I really really love my husband.

8. I have gotten nothing done this week b/c I've been reading Harry Potter non-stop. I started the series back around Christmas & took some time off. While in San Antonio I started #3 & finished it last night. Now lies the question--do I start #4 today, or do I take a few days off to get things done??

9. I love to read. I mean, LOVE IT!! When I start a good book I cannot get anything else done. It is a blessing & a curse. Ps--I love Harry Potter.

10. I want to get a pretty party dress some day.

Pictures From The Last Month Here are some pictures that I've taken recently. Enjoy! I'm having the hardest time with my blog right now, so I don't know if it will let me label them. A bullet point update is on its way soon :)

Ava & PawPaw--quite possibly her favorite person on earth.
Ava & Emmy being silly :)
Pretty girl

The Murbach girls

Mi familia

Ava in her kimono outfit from Daddy's trip to China--she looked SO CUTE!

Reading her favorite book

Ava in her (too big!!) new kicks--excuse the yellow socks--it's all I could find :)

Hanging out with some of her best friends

I Ain't No Southern Girl :)

For all of those that say I've lost my Yankee roots... and yes, I do still call it pop :)

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
North Central
The West
Boston
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz