FUN IN VIRGINIA

We decided to make a quick trip to Virginia to see my brother and his wife and cool dogs! Wasn't sure how great Scott would travel, but thought if we would stop every hour for him to walk, he would possibly be tolerable enough to make it. Just wanted to get away a bit before he goes in the hospital and before Mom's surgery. Check out the pics and see the cool skate park we visited in the small town of Stanley! This is close to Mitch and Gina's cabin and we knew it was there, but figured it would be really small since the town is so small. Imagine our surprise when we walked back there and found an awesome bowl for Chris to skate in!

Tree Trouble!

Our favorite tree that provided lots of shade or A/C split during a storm and gently laid to rest on our deck! That created a huge problem for relief from the hot sun during the heat of the day.

New Covered Deck

Since the tree split, we felt we needed to do something to help shade the house and give Scott a nice place to hang out in the heat of the summer! We are lovin' it! We put a red metal roof on it and the sound when it rains is amazing!

WE HAVE A DATE!!!!!

We finally have a date for Scott to go into the Cleveland Clinic for a trial of the intrathecal pump, that hopefully will give him LOTS of pain relief! August 25th, Scott and I will be going to the Clinic for 3-5 days. This will be a trial to see if it looks like the pump will be a good option for him. Please pray that this works. The past days with extreme heat and humidity have been a huge challenge for him. Along with the pain, he has had a lot of swelling....but I think we all feel rather swollen right now from the difficult weather we have been having. We don't have air conditioning, so we have been hanging out on our newly roofed deck a lot with fans blowing! Feel free to invite us in for a meal if you have air! :) We try to cook but have been hitting restaurants a lot lately. Just a nice break from the heat!

WAITING....

Waiting has to be one of the hardest things to endure....waiting for the ice cream truck, waiting for Christmas, waiting for your birthday, waiting for a new baby to be born, waiting for a test score....you get the point. Well right now, it seems like all we do is wait! That goes for my family as well as for my Mom! Her surgery was scheduled for July 1st. We thought that day would never get here....and then came the phone call....your surgery has been moved to Sept. 7th!!!! What???? The Dr. has to go out of town for 10 days, so that somehow moved her back a LOT longer than 10 days. I have called her Dr. and we are WAITING to see if they will move her up even a couple weeks. At the Beck household, we are WAITING while the new Dr. learns to know us and will discuss implanting an intrathecal pump in Scott to deliver pain meds all the time to him. At this point, the waiting is getting rather old!

WHY......

Do you ever wonder why......some people have to suffer so much.....the best pets can't last forever.....the ways of God are such a mystery to us.....some people seem to be so ugly to others, yet nothing bad happens to them? I could go on and on right now, as my heart is heavy. My hubby is hurting soooo badly that it just seems no matter how hard we try, we just can't find the answers. The Dr.'s keep trying, but his spirits are tough to keep up when the pain is so bad. I have an uncle who is also suffering soooo much right now. It just doesn't seem fair! My Mom is struggling with pain and waiting for surgery, our neighbor just had surgery for lump on his head and another good friend is awaiting surgery on Tuesday while her daughter is having her graduation party on Saturday! Some days I'd like to scream, but other days I just dig in and try to keep everyone's spirits up, even when mine would love to take a nose dive. I just have to hold on to my faith and know His ways are not ours, but it sure is hard some days!

DID YOU EVER?????

Watching the news lately has really been a challenge. I hate the fact that all they share are the shootings, murders, rapes, sad, and depressing stories. I realize these are the headline grabbers, but what about those news stories that are just plain funny! When we go to Cleveland we listen to the radio and one of my favorite parts is when they talk about "News we didn't use"! It's stories that were "humorous, odd, heart-warming" that just didn't make the "shock value" that our news folk seem to deem necessary. One headliner that has really gotten me upset the past couple days is the parking attendant who was shot 3 times because he wouldn't let some guy (who wasn't handicapped) park in a handicapped spot! Did you ever park in one 'cause it would only take a minute or 2? Did you ever need one (as we always do) and couldn't find one???? That is one of my biggest pet peeves! I do NOT use the spaces when my hubby is not leaving the vehicle or is not along. At times he is able to walk, but we still park in handicap, because he is at risk of falling. Do you have any clue how many times we've had people cuss at us or flip us the "bird" because it wasn't obvious to them that he had a handicap? Don't judge others, but please don't park where you don't belong....not even just for a few minutes!
So keep your ears open for the "good news" and try not to let the bad junk get you down. There is always good in our world, we just have to look to find it at times. So for now I leave you, I am on a mission to get the good people of Cleveland to help the poor homeless man that I take food to whenever we go to Cleveland. Surely someone could help this guy. He looks pleasant and always says "thank you and God bless you" when I give him a bag of food. There is a story that I think could have a very happy ending!