Frazzled and worn...

Ok, I am TOTALLY frazzled and worn out! I found this picture and thought "Hmm... that looks like I feel!" Ha! It's been a busy day. I closed three pampered Chef shows today, took Joey to Cincinnati, dropped abby to grandparents before going to Cinci. It's been wild! I'm too pooped to pop and I'm so THANKFUL tomorrow is October 1st. New month, fresh start... LOVING IT!!! Joey had a good appointment in Cinci today. They are going to be weaning the seizure meds. He said it would take 6 months to get it done. But every two weeks, we lower it a little more! Praise God!!! I can't wait for that to be DONE!!! We learned a lot today that just made me thankful we switched our care. I was very saddened by some of it and just grateful that God has us in a new place and a place that our kids LIVES are in the best interest! Thank you all for continuing to pray! We love you all VERY much! -Mindy

Hello out there!!!

Did any of you think I got lost?? Man, I tell you, we have been so busy! It is all good but hard to adjust too! So, I am having to really work hard to keep up a schedule and stay on top of the things I enjoy like blogging! The kids are still doing great! My pampered Chef stuff is taking off nicely! I'm just thrilled about it all! It's been so much fun meeting people and doing the demonstrations! This weekend, we have spent time with family. we had a camp fire last night at my parents house for the sake of Abby! She pleaded with papaw to have one! It's so fun because the fire had been lit for like 15 minutes and out of no where she goes "Papaw, when are we going to have this camp fire??" We all looked at her a bit confused and she says "Well, there's no marshmallows!" Ha! silly stinker! Papaw had yummy strawberry marshmallows and mamaw suggested something REALLY yummy! WE had strawberry marshmallows, with a Hershey's mini candy bar on a stack of short bread cookies... mmmm... now that is a luscious take on a new form of a s'more! Today, we have church, then we are going to do our weight watcher cooking to get me back on track and then that's about all! I'll be glad to be home today! I MISS HOME!!! If you can't get out to church today, please join us live! www.farmlandfriends.org My husband is preaching! I'm very excited! This is the first time I have gotten to be there and get to watch him live in person instead of online! Yeah!!! -Mindy

cutie pies!!!

Ok, Abby is just too precious!!! I very much pray that she keeps this enthusiasm about school! Today, she was up at 7 a.m. pleading with me to start school! I explained to her that bubby had a LONG time at therapy today because he has back to back. So we will be there an hour and a half. I told her we'd pack our stuff to go with us. So, we did and this is miss Abby! Pulling that back pack right along! No other cares in the world!

I may still be in my jammies mom, but my school work is packed!!!

I couldn't pass up on this Picture either. Abby had bunk beds and we took them apart because she broke the promised rule! She was caught playing on the top bunk! So, Bubby got a new bed! Here's our big man in the twin size bed....
He claps and says "yeah!" when we ask him if he likes his new bed. He looks so tiny in this great big bed! Remember, he is laying on and taking up ONLY the head of the bed! Ha! Too sweet! Have a great day all! -Mindy

settling in...

Well, I think we are getting a routine down! It has been crazy the last month with starting school, kicking off my pampered chef, Christi's wedding, etc etc and well... we hadn't gotten a routine down! But we were in action the last two days! School is top priority then follows the rest! Abby is getting used to her seat work and I'm able to do things while she works! It's great! Today, I even cleaned the refrigerator! She did awesome working on her page while I did that! I was very excited... so life is falling in to place! -Mindy

I HATE HATE HATE BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I'm on the verge of a nervous break down!!!! I ABSOLUTELY HATE BUGS!!! There is nothing to put it lightly!!!! These are the kinds of bugs all OVER my house. Spiders and crickets!!! Do they run the other way??? NO!!! They charge you! Tonight, I have killed 7 spiders... YES 7!!!! Then crickets! Ug!!! I don't even know how many!!!! One leaped out of the trash and scared me so bad I had chest pains!!! I HATE BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, did I mention I hate bugs???

Proud moments!!!

Ok, so I have a proud moment to share! Tonight, we were standing in mamaw Pfohl's living room. Abby is explaining today that you make a tall stick with a line straight out at the top, middle and bottom of the line. What does this make? Daddy looks puzzled and Abby screams "Oh daddy, it makes a capital E!!" I was so over joyed! That was part of our lessons today was writing the capital E! Good job sis! -Mindy

Putting it to good use...

Well, we are putting our new school area to good use! I never realized how much of a difference it would make having an area just for school. Joey has been more attentive, even though he's not technically "in school" we still do activities with him. He's more willing to focus on what we are doing. The difference in amazing with miss Abby though! They are just doing great! Joey has his colors down pat! He can't say them all yet as he still struggles some with words, but he can pick out the color you tell him too! He's doing well with counting. Miss Abby is doing awesome with writing! She is starting to recognize numbers as well! She can pick out 1-4 now with out me showing her which one is right! It's awesome! I'm proud of them both! I'm having so much fun homeschooling as well! -Mindy

The cherry to top it all!!!!!

Well, today was amazing! Where shared what God has done in our babies at church today. I was so emotionally overwhelmed when every one stood to clap! It's been so amazing to have all of you behind us! We were nervous about talking today because every thing thus far is 99% sure... well, we did it in faith! Tonight when we got home... this is the e-mail from the genetics doctor on a SUNDAY evening...

I'm glad to hear that things are going well. It is great hearing that children are being children...that is so important for them but also you. Regarding the labs...everything is normal. I am not going to recommend any more testing anytime soon. I say we see them back in six months and go from there. I suspect that you will have plenty of exciting stories to tell me at that visit!

We sing absolute praises to God!!!!!!!!!!!! There is none like Him!!!

Check it out!

On my side bar under the pampered chef signage, I have added my flavors for each month! I now know through December what I will be demonstrating for shows! They sound yummy! I am very excited about trying them out! -Mindy

At a loss...

Well, I honestly don't know what to post about today. I have been in such a whirl wind trying to catch up with life and life just keeps getting away! I had my second pampered chef show tonight. It went pretty good. I was actually very excited! My sister-n-law paid me a high compliment that has me on a buzz! :) I'm really enjoying myself. Anyway, we are going to be talking about the kids miracle at church tomorrow. If you want to watch, join us live at 10:30 http://www.farmlandfriends.org/ Just click on "watch live" at the bottom of the page. -Mindy

Good day...

It's been a good day! I woke to find I have now lost 16 lbs. Then moved on to a day off with Jeff home! Yeah!! I love those days! We got all of our cooking done for the week so now we just have heat and eats! This week is going to be busy coming up! I won't even bore you with the schedule, but I'm tired already just thinking about it! More later! Hope all have a great day! -Mindy

Crazy day!!!

Ok, so I woke up this morning with a bit of a tummy bug! I felt GREAT yesterday asside from being wiped out from being busy! Then, to wake up icky!!! No fun! Oh well. I got a lot of sit down work done today. Anyway, hope all had a great day! Short and sweet tonight! -Mindy

I did it! I did it!!!!

I'm so excited!!! I did my first cooking show tonight and I had a blast with it!!! Oh man, so much fun and such yummy treats!!!! I can't wait until Saturday now to do the next one! I LOVED it!!! I love to cook, love to teach and love to talk... what more could a girl ask for!?!?!?!?

If you are interested in ordering though on this show, it closes the 18th! Let me know! Thanks all!!! pfohl4@hotmail.com -Mindy

One seriously crazy day!!!!

We started the day with cleaning! After the weekend we had, our house was a disaster! Then we were off to do some grocery shopping! Yep! You'd think that was normal and routine, but NOPE!!! Joey decided to get silly and wild in the shopping and cart and.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!! Chip HALF of his front tooth off! Yep! It is true! We contiplated what to do but he calmed down with a hug and we can touch it with out him freaking out... so we are going to take him in the morning when the dentist is open. Ahhh... at least he did it cause he was being happy instead of pitching a fit!

Then, it was home we went... to make these!!!! Mmmm.....

Abby and I whipped up a batch of pampered chef's home made mini cheese burgers. Oh man! Were they ever good! So... if you want to try these... come saturday to the open house ! :)
Then we did a little of this... Umm... not sure why my picture did not rotate... but they are not laying side ways on the table! I got a little fall festive feeling when the weather cooled today! So, thought I'd break out some flower making!
And, we finished with this! I love candles and I love fall... so what better of a creation than a mix of both for my center piece on my table! So much fun!

Now... it is time to rest! Off to bed I go! Tomorrow is my dry run of my new pampered chef parties. We'll see how it goes! We are going to be dining on Mini cheese burgers, a yummy dip and then for desert, I'll be making my Tiny carmel apple tartlets! oh my mouth is watering for those already!!! Mmmm....

You are invited!!!

This Saturday, September 20th, at 1:30 p.m. I am having my official open house to kick off my New home business with Pampered Chef. I am inviting ALL OF YOU!!! If you would like to come, please RSVP at pfohl4@hotmail.com I just want a head count so I have plenty of yummies made up for all of you! Looking forward to it! -Mindy

The whole truth...

Well, I have to confess I have been struggling within myself about what to say about the kids. Many have begun asking if we have been misdiagnosed, are we going to go after Riley, are we angry, are we confused... the answer to it all is... we TRULY believe that God has touched their bodies. I can remember that they were SICK. Especially Joey. He could not FIGHT off any thing. His blood levels were acidic and toxic, he had no muscles at all, etc etc... He was a sick little boy for a long time! I know that getting him on a normal diet has helped, but I believe our ped is even on the same page even... not that much has changed to make them LOOK this good! Before, if we would go to church, we'd come home and the kids would sleep or lay around for two days lethargic... now... here is a run down of our week...

Tuesday: Two therapies, Dance class and shopping for the wedding

Wednesday: Hair cuts, prep for the wedding (involves running all around) and more...

Thursday: Dr. Appointments, clean up food pantry and then hold pantry hours

Friday: The entire day was set up for the wedding, wedding rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner

Saturday: the wedding, came home and played that evening all evening

Sunday: went to church, went to do some shopping, got blessed with a trip to chuckecheese and played chase in our living room with papaw...

Does that sound like a lethargic week?!?!?! NOPE!!! God's hand is powerful! We have prayed and trusted him completely! HE doesn't always choose to heal. I know that. I have born witness more than once in my life that some times God allows us to walk through things and other times, he chooses to heal. In this situation, I don't understand it! I have no idea because I feel totally and 100% undeserving. However, i know that God will get the most glory out of it if it is in His will! This week, I have received more than one phone call to let me know they have been sharing this story with people and it is leading people to understand that our God is alive and real!!!! Lives are being touched, changed and that is so very amazing!

So, misdiagnosis... or God's touch... EITHER WAY, we have every reason to be thankful! By this time last year, we were home bound... now we are getting to enjoy what we lost in the two years... All things for the glory of God!

Congrats Christi & Jimmy!!!

Today was the big day! Christi is now titled Mrs. Cox! It was an exciting day! Christi getting her hair done...
Mom premping Christi...
Joey in his tux... Eye is a beauty isn't it??
Miss Abby ready for the big event!
Hmm... what can I get into?
3 up to no good! Logan on the left, Abby and then umm... Joey left the picture!!!
Oh Julie! Don't do my hair! Come on now! I'm a boy! Let me a be a mess!
The official running from the comb!
Aww... sweet sleep! No more wedding for me!!!

Wedding day...

Tomorrow is my sister's big day. I pray that it is an awesome one for her! I know that she is tired and has a lot of preparing to do, but I pray it is all worth while and at the end of the day, she has found total happiness! I know I'm tired! ;) I will update with pictures as soon as I can! Joey in a tux! Abby all done up pretty! Oh I just can NOT wait!!!! -Mindy

Bestest birthday ever!!!

Well, today was my birthday. I hit the big 29. We had a good day. My brother and his wife watched my kids tonight so Jeff and I went on a date! Yeah! When picking Abby up, she wanted to throw a party for mommy! So, we swung by Wal-mart...

Abby said that she wanted to pick my cake! She told me she was going to get the prettiest one ever! So sweet! I thanked her for it later telling her it was the best I ever ate and she said "it was my pweasure mommy." So sweet!

Joey picked the ice cream! He was all about Chocolate! He hates most sweets but he LOVES chocolate! Good boy!!! He is so cute!

This is from my sweet husband!!! Mmm... sweet completion to a wonderful day!!!

Oh so close to the wedding!

Added info to this blog... I forgot to tell you all what happened to give joey the black eye! (Thanks Aleyna for reminding me I forgot!) We were at the park and he was climbing on this fort like thing and tripped and nailed his face on the platform in front of him! I knew before daddy got to him it was going to be ugly!!! So... now, here is the story as I had wrote earlier!

Yep... about an hour ago, Joey got a serious shiner! The wedding is Saturday for Aunt Christi and this ring barrer looks like he has had a fight! Whew!!!

It's a beauty!!
Poor guy! He was so upset! mommy felt awful! Maybe it will not be so loud by Saturday! Oh dear!

I don't want to share!!!!

Ok, so if you are holding a party in the month of September... this is what you have to look forward too!

I did a practice round of my carmel apple tartlets! Mmmm.... So tasty!!! Oh my! I just want to eat all 24 of them! mmm!!!!!! I can feel the pounds trying to creep on as I sneaker another bite!

My tummy is growling!!! -Mindy

moving furniture... AGAIN!!!!!

Well, we spent yesterday redoing our house! Yep! We did it again! As you live some place, you just begin to find ways to make it your own. So, we did! We now have our own home school area. We made room for my piano in the living room and put the school area where the piano once was. We have our marker board, our felt board, our color posters, our calendar, our number chart and our weather graph all on the wall! Yeah!!! The kids REALLY REALLY like it and it should make mommy's job so much easier!

Saturday night fun...

Saturday night we went over to my sister's house for my birthday dinner. (actually the 10th is my birthday). She made a yummy dinner and a camp fire!

The kids enjoyed wrapping up in blankies by the fire with mamaw!
Joey was a big help unloading the wood from the back of the truck
Awwww.... I love fires!
Now this is just funny! They started the fire on the patio but Joey would NOT quit walking around. He is still very stumbly at times so we got nervous. dad and Jeff found some boards in the garage and were able to lift the pit. They were sweating bullets by the time they sat it down! Poor guys! But what a good papaw and daddy to risk being too hot to save Joey!
Joey enjoyed stealing every one's chair the minute they got up as well! We absolutely had a great time!

Saturday morning Poker Run

Yesterday, we went to the Poker run at the moose in Winchester. The people who are riding have worked hard to help raise funds for the Morgan Short fund. This fund has helped in the past with the kids medical care. We were very honored to be there!

This picture is of the kids with Judy. She works at Wal-Mart with Aunt Christi.
Abby enjoyed lemonade from Alex's lemonade stand. This is a national program that helps raise funds for Cancer patients. Alex had started a lemonade stand before loosing her bad to cancer and htis was created in memory of her to help other kids just like her!
Here we are in the line up! They introduce us, the short family who lost their child Morgan to cancer thus starting the Morgan short fund to help other kids with health problems, and another family as well who had a little girl who has been helped by the fund.
Miss Abby was very excited to eat breakfast there! Pancake and a biscuit! yummy! Oh, and loads of butter! ha!
Joey thought he might work on Judy's bike just to make sure it was working properly when she left! I think she might find a little bit of biscuit in her engine as well! Silly boy! He thought the bikes were great! He kept signing please all morning becuase he wanted one! I believe daddy put him up to begging for a bike! :) Goofy boy! It was a great morning and again, we were honored to be there!

So beautiful...

Tonight, Abby told me again, "Mommy, I'm so happy jesus is making my body feel better. he's in my heart and he hears me so he helped me so I could feel better and not have to take so much medicine." The faith of a child... I know Go dhas touched that babies body because of her faith! Her sweet spirit is so beautiful!!!

Yet another reason to praise God!

Here is an e-mail I just sent out! VERY VERY exciting news!!!!!!!!!! Watching our miracle unfold before our eyes!!!!

Hello every one! I really am excited to be writing tonight's updates. GI called today. Joey's biopsies in his tummy came back normal! Absolutely NORMAL!!! No special diets, no weird things to watch... just normal! Yeah!!! Also, Genetics called today. They said that they are now 99% sure that they DO NOT have mito or ANYTHING AT ALL metabolic. As a matter a fact, they stopped all metabolic medications!!! Thank you Jesus!!! Miss Abby was especially excited! She can not stand her meds! They make her gag so badly! thank you all so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for wisdom and direction for the doctors right now. They are considering removing Joey's feeding tube now. Our next appointment right now is for the 30th with Nuero. THanks all! Means the world that you pray! -Mindy

School update...

Well, I haven't showed anything on here about school in awhile, so I thought I'd post a few of todays lessons. I decided not to bore you with all. Just my favorites.

Miss Abby was learning how to write Uu today. She got frustrated... but I think she did very well for her first tries.
Abby's is red, mommy's is blue.
Abby has been learning to recognize numbers. This was a game we played today. I tossed the numbers all over and she had to run and find the one I told her and put it in the right order on the board. She did GREAT!!!
Joey, he worked on his artistic abilities while learning to count and say his ABC's yeah Joey!!! He also glued apple on a tree today and did so well! yeah Joey!

My silly rug rats...

Well, My kids are becoming best of buddy's and partners in crime!!!! It absolutely amazes me to watch them. They are getting so big and absolutely so active! This morning, they were playing and giggling and it just started my day wonderfully! I love to hear their laughter! We have a busy day ahead of us! We have Physical Therapy for Joey, then home to do our school work, off to the library for story time in Winchester and then over to Aunt christi's house to be her wedding prep team! Whew!!! Can we say exhausted!!! That'll be me tonight!!! Thanks all for coming by here and checking in our family! We so much appreciate it! Leave us a message to let us know who you are! -Mindy

Ups and downs...

I some days wish I had complete control over my feelings and emotions. Things just seem to side swipe you and wham... your down again! After Sunday, I have been very focused on just remaining thankful and trusting God has every thing in his hands with my kids. It is very hard though because I still see the things that aren't right and it is hard not to freak out. Cincinnati sees them to and they are working hard to find answers but it is so hard to remain positive and wait for the answer rather than to just focus on the fears and dread the future! Ug! Some good sleep and a new day should help! -Mindy

Semi good news!!!

Ok, after being very depressed, I got my camera out... This is a picture I snapped this morning of Jeff. It is NOT my lens that is broken. It is my screen that shows me the digital image. The bad news is... I don't have an eye hole on there... so I have to take a shot in the dark and hope I get the pic I want! There is about a 1/3 of the screen that you can see some what where you are pointing... so that is helpful. Unfortunately, I will have to deal with it because we can't replace it right now... If you know any friends or family selling one of their digitals... remember Mindy! I'm in the market for something! Ha! Hope all have a great day today! We have rehab so we'll be running as usual! -Mindy

So depressing!!!!

My camera is officially dead, broken, out of comission, no longer working! Ug! I' m so upset! We can't replace it right now... so you will only get to see "older" pictures of the kids. I'm so bummed! My favorite thing is taking pictures... some day I will be re-united with a camera! :)

So depressing!!!!

Hurricane relief...

In an effort to help with the relief to the victoms of this hurricane, we are joinging with Angel Food America. If you are interested in making a financial donations or following the blog to learn of other donations they may be needing, please follow this link: http://www.angelfoodcommunity.org/ I just spoke with Pastor Steven Nations over the phone and they said that it is just overwhelming how quickly the relief areas are filling. Many are already over quota and prayers are desperately needed. The location he is working with is needing a commercial refrigerator to help with feeding the people they are taking in. Your prayers are much needed at this time for many! -Mindy

Affecting my heart....

Yesterday's service was absolutely wonderful. We are going through the Confessions series right now. Something hit me as we were going through the last set of songs. It hit me that I have been living a lie myself. You see, God is doing a miracle in my children's lives. They are energetic, playing and running, acting like normal kids for their age. Joey's development is starting to catch up, he is starting to speak more and more every day! I picked this picture today above because he's eating chocolate. something a doctor told me my son would never get to do because it would make his body so acidic it would kill him. He's enjoying life and paying no consequences for it! Where does the lie come in? My heart! My physical eye can see that there is a miracle before me. I can see my kids changing EVERY SINGLE day... but in my heart, I struggle to believe it. I stand waiting for my world to come crashing in. I hold back in the fear that tomorrow, Cincinnati is going to call me and say "we are sorry, it is all a mistake. Your child is still going to die a very early death." That looms in my heart! I stepped out yesterday and I gave that lie to God. I TRULY gave it because I began to worship HIM and thank HIM for the miracle of life for my children. Today, I feel happier and much more free. I am CHOOSING to trust that He is God and He has done this work to completion even still as I watch my kiddos have some difficulties. The miracle may not be complete yet, but I know that God's promises are true and he has restored life where life was told it would be stripped away! Thank God for His loving kindness! -Mindy