Sickness and My Attitude

"When Jesus heard that, He said, 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." ~ John 11:4

The sermon on Sunday morning was about the story of Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus who got sick and died, and how Jesus raised him from the dead. The above verse really made me think about how I view sickness and death. Physical sickness, whether it's cancer or anything else, is just part of life. There are things I can do to try to be "healthy" physically, but I can't change my genes. I could do everything right from a health standpoint and still get breast cancer. Or some other disease. What I'm realizing is that getting sick just happens sometimes. The important thing is how I view it. 

Lately, I've been wondering why Mom had to get breast cancer. Why her? Why right now? I can't answer any of that unfortunately, and I guess the answers aren't that important anyway. It's here, and we will deal with it. I'm trying really hard to keep the right attitude about it, and some days I do better than others. I am trying to look at this as an opportunity instead of a difficulty. It's an opportunity for my family to grow closer. It's an opportunity for us to set a good example for other people going through similar situations. And, ultimately it's an opportunity for God to be glorified if we handle this the right way. 

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." ~ John 11:25-26

If we live and believe in Christ, we will never spiritually die. And that is the most important thing. Physical sickness and death shouldn't be something to fear. 

I'm not saying that I've given up hope that Mom will beat this. In fact, she has gotten a really good prognosis for having such an aggressive type of breast cancer. It seems like they caught it pretty early, and I'm really thankful for that. It's hard to be a by-stander throughout the whole process though. I'm not her doctor. I'm not even living in the same town anymore.  I wish I could be there to go with her to her appointments and just to be there every day in person. But, I can't just pack up and move home for the rest of the year (Travis would starve..haha!). I guess I'm really not even a by-stander when I pray. I know a lot of people have been praying for Mom, and God hears us. We'll just have to wait for the answer.

Mom met with her oncologist on Monday and found out the tentative schedule for her chemo treatments. She is getting a port put in next Monday the 15th, and chemo starts the following Monday (August 22nd). She will have chemo every other week for 8 weeks (4 treatments), and then every 3 weeks for 12 weeks (4 treatments). So, it is 8 total treatments. If it stays on schedule, she will be finished just before Christmas...yay! Then, she will have about 5-7 weeks of radiation (which will be every day Monday through Friday). Hopefully, she will be completely finished and cancer free by about March of next year! We will have to have a big celebration when she's finished! :)

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

We can do it! Please keep your prayers coming! 

Bad luck or a test?

I think I am being tested to see if I really believe what I wrote in my last blog. You know, the part about "it's just stuff and it can be replaced, so it's not worth getting all upset about".

I wrote that in the context of all of the stuff we had damaged by the lightning during the storms on April 27th. Well, here's an update on our "stuff" since Friday when I last posted:

Sunday night, Travis figured out that one of the speakers in his surround sound setup isn't working properly anymore. We are guessing it was due to lightning damage also, but we just hadn't noticed it yet. Eh, no big deal, we've already got to replace the TV and Blu-Ray player, what's one more thing?

Monday at work, I get a call from Travis. He's on his way home from work, and his car is overheating. Like all the way in the red as far as it goes. He pretty much coasted all the way to the repair shop so he wouldn't burn up his engine, and by that time, it was about 5:30 PM, so he just left it overnight for them to take a look at it on Tuesday. Travis was hoping it was just a hose leaking or something...

A little later that evening, we are about to sit down for supper, and we notice that our ice maker hadn't made any ice all day. (Travis took his lunch in a cooler to work Monday and emptied the whole bin). Hmmm...that's strange. It's a brand new refrigerator. Didn't even look like the previous owners used it before we got the house. Travis tried everything he could think of to get it to work. Googled it, tried everything in the manual, nothing. Of course, the 1 year home warranty the sellers bought for us when we bought the house doesn't cover refrigerators. You have to pay extra for that. So, we've ordered a new ice maker, and it's on it's way. 

Fast forward to Tuesday morning. Travis hears from the repair shop about his car. The radiator and thermostat need to be replaced. Almost $700. If you remember, this is the same car that we were debating about getting rid of before buying a house at the end last year. The car isn't even worth $700...haha. But, rather than make a hasty decision about buying a new car, we decide to just get the radiator and themostat fixed and hope the car will hang on a little while longer. 

Tuesday night, Travis notices that the thermostat in our house (you know, the programmable one that he was so excited about installing a few months ago) is starting to MELT. Just a little corner of the cover, but it definitely has a dimple that it didn't have before. And that part is really hot. Not sure what's going on with it, but I hope it doesn't catch our house on fire. Could have been damaged with the lightning too I guess...

By the way, Travis got his car back Tuesday evening after work, so that was good.

So, then, yesterday Travis gets home and tells me that the A/C in his car quit working. Seriously? At this point, we have decided we aren't throwing away any more money into that car, so he's just going to have to live without A/C this summer I guess. 

It's still early today (Thursday), but I'm wondering what's going to break or malfunction today that I just don't know about yet. 

Now, I'm NOT telling you all of that to complain. I'm really not. It's frustrating and it's going to cost a lot of money to fix everything. But, surely things cannot continue to break or fall apart at this rate. All of you "responsible adults", do you really come home EVERY DAY to find one or two things not working anymore? I'm hoping this is just a bad stretch of luck that will end before too long. And if it's not just luck....if it's the devil tempting me to go back on what I said last week, then I'll show him...haha. It's still just stuff. I'm not happy about it all breaking and having to replace it, but it can be done.  I'm going to look at this as a personal challenge to maintain a good attitude even during frustating times. 

"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." Philippians 2:14-15

How has your attitude been this week? You can be part of this challenge with me: Let's all try to complain LESS and be positive MORE :)

24

Well, I had a great birthday yesterday! I got lots of cards, texts, phone calls, and facebook messages, so that made my day very special. Travis came home with a big bouquet of flowers from a florist nearby, and I love them. He knows that I don't really like roses, but these are perfect.


He also got me the newest Little Big Town CD and 2 books by Francine Rivers that I've been wanting to read. Yay!!

Last night, someone at church asked me how old I was and then immediately said, "Oh wait, I guess I'm not supposed to ask you that, right?" I laughed and told him that I wasn't to the point where that question bothered me yet. But, then the more I started thinking about it, I hope I'm never to that point! Being 24 means that God has blessed me with 24 years of life! And the same will hold true when/if I get to be 44, 64, or 94, etc. I think it's silly for people to be embarrassed of their age because it's really something you should be thankful for. So, someone please remind me that I said this in 16 years...haha :)

This past weekend was dedicated to Mrs. Cheryl's big birthday celebration. Alisha and Tyler spent the night Friday night, and we had a lot of fun. I made BBQ sandwiches for supper, and we got to spend some time talking with Baugay upstairs too. Saturday was the big party! We spent most of the afternoon at the Copelands' house decorating and getting ready.

Most of the Dvorak cousins :)

The decorated food table!

The hostesses with the mostesses :)

My camera died before the party even started, so I tried taking pictures with my Droid, and they didn't turn out very good. It's probably user error :)

The party was a lot of fun though! She wasn't surprised, but that's ok I guess. It's hard to keep parties a secret when so many people know about it. We had a good turnout and more than enough food leftover.

This weekend, Travis and I are going to Pigeon Forge. Mollie's parents are renting a cabin up there for the weekend, and she invited several people to come stay with them. I didn't realize until recently that Pigeon Forge is so close to Knoxville (where the Bama game is)...it's only 30-45 minutes away! I'm not sure if we'll go to the game or not; we don't have tickets yet, but I'm thinking that they wouldn't be too hard to find once we get there. Either way, it will be a fun time!!!

Well, it's time for me to hit the gym. I biked 15.7 miles yesterday, so I'm really trying to get that mileage in! Right now, I'm in 7th place in the Iron Bowl Walk-A-Thon...woohoo! :)

Hope you are having an awesome week so far!!

Lessons Learned (and Re-Learned)

Here are some random things I've learned in the past week:

Lesson #1: NEVER give your phone number to a realtor at an open house, especially when you aren't seriously looking to buy in the next month or two. I made the mistake of giving my number to one who said "I promise not to bug you. I know how that feels, and I hate being harrassed." Ok, so what do 4 emails and 3 phone calls in the past 2 days equal? HARRASSMENT! Oh well, I'll know better for next time :)

Lesson #2: Stressing out about taking a class for your job is pointless. Chances are, they won't fire you if you don't do good. And chances are, it's not going to be nearly as hard as you think it might be. Translation: I got all worked up over taking ACLS last week because I'd heard from several people that you need to study a ton for it and it's really hard. And it wasn't super easy. But it went fine anyway! Always does :)

Lesson #3: "Working life" is just as busy as "college life" is. For some reason, I thought we would have all this free time on our hands to enjoy now that we don't have class, tests, and homework to worry about. Well, I'm not sure where all the time is going, but it's going somewhere! I guess life never slows down...you just have to take advantage of the time you have right now.

Lesson #4: Publix is awesome. Unlike at Wal-Mart or Target, you never have to wait in line more than a minute or so. Last week at Wal-Mart, I waited 20 minutes to check out....literally. Publix is clean, the associates are helpful and nice, and they have an awesome coupon policy that lets me save money! Every time I go to Wal-Mart or Target, it makes me love Publix even more!

Lesson #5: Perspective. It's all about the way you look at things. If you automatically view everything and everyone in a negative light, it can really bring you down. But, if you look for the good in people, chances are you'll have a better day.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." ~William James

Hope you all are having a GREAT day!