Gigi is sitting by Jesus' side right now

It is with joy and sadness that we celebrate Peter's Mom as she graduated to Heaven and now is with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She is greatly loved and will be deeply missed. Peter was able to fly out to be with her and his family for her final days. It was such a blessing for their whole family to be together and walk through these days together. Peter will be home this coming Monday.

Here is her Obituary from the local news paper:

The family of Linda Lou (Wilson) Schug announces her graduation from life on earth to life eternal in Heaven where she will be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, forever. She graduated on October 17, 2009 after a seven year journey with cancer.

Linda was born in Kansas City, Missouri, grew up in Oregon and Colorado. While at college, she met me, Timothy, and we married three years later, moved to Billings, Montana where we spent 39 wonderful and fantastic years. During that period we raised three exceptional children; Nathan (and wife Sarah with children Peyton, Brady and Mackenzie), Peter (and wife Rebecca with children Isaiah and Susannah) and Deborah (Schug) Palmer (and husband Eric Palmer and they plan to have children). Linda was a teacher at Fishtail School in rural Fishtail, Montana for one year and then taught second grade at Lockwood Elementary School for 5 years before becoming a full time MOM. Together we served in various ministries at Billings Bible Church and loved serving, working, helping, encouraging and cooking at Clydehurst Christian Ranch.

Linda’s treasured friends say: “You have been my friend, non-judging; showing me your love and care.” “We’ve done so much together: Young Couples Sunday School and fellowships; having 3 kids each and raising them (not to mention seeing them married and having those grand kids!); Clydehurst Family Camps and work weekends (you are an amazing cook – both for small and large groups;…” “…just for being the dear, sweet, thoughtful, funny and generous friend that you are.” “…your gentle spirit was even more apparent to me. Your faithfulness in serving the Lord in so many ways is very becoming as a believer.” “…you have added joy to my life, too! Your infectious laughter and funny ‘Linda-isms’ have happily caused many of my crow’s feet and laugh-line wrinkles!” “Your hospitality is always from your heart.” “Over the years you have opened your home and your heart to us and many others and we are so appreciative of that.” “…for your openness in allowing God to work through you for His honor and glory.” “You have set a good example for your kids in your relationship with Tim. I know that your kids love and respect you dearly.” “I’m thinking of and treasuring all the times we’ve spent together, such as the many times you came to camp and made crepes and special breakfasts [for the staff].” And the one shared by all – “I praise the Lord that I am one of the fortunate ones to say, ‘Linda Schug is my friend.’”

For those who would like to celebrate this graduation, please join us at Emmanuel Baptist Church in the Shiloh Room on November 24, 2009 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. Any gifts or memorials are requested to be given to Clydehurst Christian Ranch (1201 Grand Ave, Suite #8, Billings, MT 59102) for the continued spread of the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Savior of any person willing to believe.

Please continue to uphold our family and Peter's Dad in your prayers as we learn what life is like without their Wife, Mom, Mom-in-law or Gigi.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Gigi and Susannah from when Peter's parent visited us in Asia.

A little catch up

Life gets busy and I do everything online but update this blog. I'll lay in bed at night and write wonderfully witty and insightful blog posts in my mind and forget everything I 'wrote' the next day. So here is a little catch up on what has been happening in our lives.

In no particular order...

Isaiah has qualified for free speech therapy through the county. He is behind in articulation, meaning that his number of words and comprehension are normal for his age but the amount of words others can understand him say is very low. The therapy sessions should start in about 2 weeks. It's funny because the speech therapist who evaluated him says that the mistakes he makes are very unusual and he makes different mistakes on the same sounds in different words. Example he can very clearly say Papa but will use a B sound with other P words and he does some form of this for many sounds. I have been greatly encouraged by how quickly his vocabulary has grown since he had surgery in August. He has also ventured into potty train mode. He does great during the day at home with almost no accidents.

Susannah has just been going along with the flow of things. I've found her dancing on the coffee table, climbing up the outside of the stairs by holding on to the banister and she figures out how to get the lock off the sink cabinet. Her big adventure has been surgery to repair a urachal cyst and close off a tube that ran from her bladder to belly button. Not that any of this bothered her much but she had reoccurring bouts of drainage and redness in her belly button that finally got our attention. She handled the surgery very well and was back to climbing and running the same day.

As a family we traveled to Montana a few weeks ago to visit with Peter's mom. She has been battling ovarian cancer for the past eight years and is losing the battle. She is quickly going down hill and we are expecting that during our Thanksgiving family reunion we will also hold a memorial service for her. Watching a family member this close to us die is a new thing. We both are going through different stages of grief and emotions. We have a peace that one day we will see her again in Heaven and this will be a end to her earthly suffering. But it's hard. Isaiah and Susannah will have few to any memories of her and she never hold and future kids in her arms. She has so blessed all our lives. I am searching for airline tickets to send Peter back up there in about 2 weeks. It is important for him to send this time with her.

I have been busy getting settled into a routine here. I am attending a Woman's Bible study on Tuesday mornings and the kids get some much needed interaction with their age group. Also there is a MOPS group I am hoping to try out next week. I'm excited to take the kids out to a farm to pick pumpkins and go for a hay ride this month and a possible trip to the zoo in Columbia soon to.

Okay so there is a long summary of what is going on around here. I'll try to get some photos up soon. I have some great pictures from camping in Georgia and the beach. So I'll be back soon, I Promise.

Kreativ Award!

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This is the first time I've been tagged (or nominated) for an award! My friend Christine tagged me for this. I've never done one of these before and I think they're pretty fun. Thanks Christine!

Christine has been a friend for many years and is a great joy to know. Check her out at livinginhisfaithfulness.blogspot.com/.

Okay here is what I'm suppose to do for the award thingy...

1-Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2-Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3-Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4-Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5-Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6-Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7-Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.


Let's see, 7 things about me that people may not know...

1. In the past 3 years I've had 2 kids, lived in 4 states and 10 houses, 2 countries and 2 different cities there, and I'm ready for a new change!

2. I can play piano, flute, and cello but I am tone deaf and would never be asked to play in front of people. My high school orchestra teacher called me her perpetual beginner.

3. I went to college for no other reason than to continue to ski race.

4. I love to read. I could get lost in books and still read more than a book a week.

5. I'm hopelessly addicted to diet soda and chocolate or peanut butter ice cream (if they're together all the better).

6. I enjoy crocheting and making things for others. I am currently making a cupcake purse for Susannah for Christmas and plan on a fish afghan for Isaiah soon. Yet I rarely make anything to keep for myself.

7. I spend way too much time on the computer and internet each day yet seem to never manage to write anything on my own blog. I don't remember what we did before the internet. How did people buy things, talk to friends, find useful and some very un-useful things, pay bills, or post a classified ad (craigs list). I'm kidding but really it is incredible how much this invention saves me time; only to waste it doing so much other frivolous stuff.

Well since most of the people I know have already done this award I will pass on nominating anyone. Sorry guys.

Do you know what adeniods are?

Well Isaiah is soon to lose his. From what I understand they are little clumps of lymph cell that grow in the back of the nose and affect how well you can breath. In Isaiah's case he has obstructive sleep apnea and speech problems that can be helped by removal of the adenoids. Now, his Dad and Gigi (grandma) both have sleep apnea so I'm sensing a pattern here. From what I've been reading this can cause many problems with attention disorders and behavior as they progress through school. Mainly from lack of sleep. With apnea they are continually waking themselves up at night by not being able to breath or snoring. So during the day they are tired and irritable. They also breath through their mouth all the time. I had never even considered sleep apnea a child's problem but we are so glad to be catching it early. Funnily enough Peter is going to the doctor in the next week to be treated for sleep apnea as well. Yeah no more snoring at night;)

Isaiah is also going to have tubes put in his ears during the surgery to help his hearing. Apparently his ear drums are to sunken to allow him to hear properly. The doctor said he has about 15-20% hearing loss as of now. Between inserting tubes and removing the adenoids this should help him regain his hearing.

Next on the list is to get his speech problems checked out and have some speech therapy started. We started to notice problems when we moved back from Asia and now many people have commented on how hard it is to understand him. This is an important thing for us to work on before we move again and expose him to yet another language.

Pray for this little dude as he faces lots of Doctors and a quick recovery from surgery next Tuesday. Also pray that we'll be placed with just the right speech therapist who will be able to accurately assess Isaiah's problems and plan the correct program to help him improve his speech.

I need help

So we have a problem with Isaiah that needs to be addressed. He runs away. In the stores, at home, as soon as the door to outside opens, in parking lots, you get the idea. If you have experience in this or an idea to help correct this behavior I'd love to hear it. So far I haven't been able to reign him in. He's taken off in the grocery store three times on me, when I haven't been able to get a double cart and only comes when we call him at home about half the time. We've put him in time out, taken away toys, made him walk back with us and try again. So what works for you?

My little Susie turns ONE

From the beginning you were a wonderful surprise. Your Dad and I never expected to have two babies so close together and then you came into this world almost 3 weeks early.

I'll give a brief summary of your birth for those who don't know. We were living in Asia during the whole pregnancy. All through July I had lots of Braxton-Hicks, I was also sitting in Language class for 25 hours a week. So when we were eating dinner at a friends house I ignored the contractions I was having thinking they were just more BH contractions. But as the evening progressed I was getting more uncomfortable and told Peter it was time to head home. It took another 30 minutes before we were able to make it into an Auto Rickshaw for the 15 minute drive home. During the ride I think the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart yet I still insisted that there was no way you would come before midnight, it was about 8:45pm then. In God's perfect planning the friend who was going to watch Isaiah when it was time was at our house along with 11 other friends from Scotland. So we dropped off Isaiah, called the doctor, and called a taxi for the hospital. We drove the 15 minutes to the hospital and made it there by 9:30pm. I was immediately taken to a delivery room. My Doctor had not shown up yet (because Pete called the wrong number) so the attending checked me over and said I still had a while. As the doctor began to suit up THAT time came. I rolled onto my back, had Pete get someone to raise the bed and after about 3 pushed Susannah was born at 9:53pm. She was so tiny and perfect. It was incredible how fast everything went and how easy it was (compared to Isaiah's birth). I made Pete follow Susannah and the doctors with her around, they had to take her out of the room for somethings. So I was able to get cleaned up and by this time my Doctor had arrived and saved me from a dose of IV antibiotics ("cause that's how things are done here" according to the attending). We had two nights in the hospital and then brought baby Schug home (she was un-named for 5 days) to a house full of 11 new people. What an adventure it was.



Isaiah thought having a real live baby doll was wonderful. It has been awesome to watch how strong their bond is. They hug and kiss, wrestle and fight, and always want to know where the other one is. They bring so much joy to us.


Susannah enjoying the sunshine in Thailand. Before she turned one she had been to three different countries and been through 19 different states. She is a trooper!
To my dear baby girl...
You are such a ray of sunshine, who can always make me smile. We have loved everyday you've been with us. I pray as you grow that you will come to know Jesus at a early age and trust in Him and follow Him all the days of your life. I pray you will never lose your smile and tender spirit. Yet you have a stubborn streak that will challenge you as life moves on. You are such a little spit-fire yet never turn down a hug with Mom. Thank you for all the ways you bring joy to my life.

And in a side note to Susannah, she beat her brother to the hospital. Last Thursday she fell off (possibly pushed by brother) the first step straight back onto her head on the wooden floors here and we I went to pick her up she passed out in my arms. It took a bit to wake her up and when she did her pupils were all funny. So I called the doctor and had to take her into the ER for a CT scan. Everything came back fine but she did have a concussion and we had to wake her up every 2 hours all night. Poor little girl, it's hard being so tiny and already running everywhere.

She has also manage to make it to the top of the slide and into the play structure at Chik-Fil-A. How she managed to get up the top of the 10 foot slide I have no idea! So I had to go climbing up after her and bring her down.

Pictures

Hey everyone I just uploaded a bunch of recent pictures onto Facebook. If we're not friends already please add me and you can see what we've been up to the past month.

My Climber

Today I found my not quite 1 year old peering into the microwave. She is a climber; the toy kitchen, the couch, the stairs, the slide at the playground; she just goes and goes. Some day she'll fall and realize what "that's too high" means when I warn her but for now she just gives be a big "look where I am mom" smile.

The power of coupons

Since returning from Asia I've found many websites devoted to saving money while shopping for food and household items. I thank all these wonderful ladies for the time they put into compiling lists of deals for those of us who don't have the time. I clipped coupons and shopped deals this past week for outrageous savings.
I bought everything you see here plus some ice cream treats for $20.12. Over 77% less than the ticket price. And it was easy. It took me about 2 hours on the computer printing coupons and compiling my shopping list. This week was long because I'm still learning the tricks. But I figured even at about $66 savings that's still $33 per hour rate I made. So I'm pretty sure I'm hooked.



I also shopped CVS and bought:
2 packs of Baid-aide
2 tubes of neosproin
2 packs of loose leaf paper
1 toothpaste
1 pack panty liners
and a few other small things for $9. If you haven't heard about their Rewards Cash look into it. They will basically give you free things once you know how to work the system.

I'll keep you updated on how much I'm saving. This really turns grocery shopping into a game.

Opps

It was one of those nights. We ate dinner out at a new restaurant. The food was pretty bad and Isaiah won't sit still. But to top it off I took the left overs out to the car and put them on top of the van while i had to manually unlock the doors (our crazy car automatic locks stopped working) and get the kids in. Once that chore was over I climb into the car and off we drove. *You see where this is going?* After 3 turns and getting up to about 45 mph Pete and I hear a some noise on the car and as i look in the mirror i see the car behind us swerving to miss something. Then I remember...the food. Oh well it wasn't the good anyways:) Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself.

The past two months in pictures

Ok, so the pictures ended up in reverse order. First so photos from camping in Yellowstone.
Isaiah has a very nurturing heart. He loves Susannah's baby dolls; feeding, diapering and putting them to bed juts like mom does. I have a whole post just wanting on this subject.
For all our friends in Asia who are suffering in the heat, we had snow 3 times in June. It was so cold. We keep wishing for hot weather!
Some photos from the Zoo in Milwaukee with my parents. Both kids go crazy for animals.

Isaiah loves dogs, thankfully Chase enjoyed being sat on, rolled over and ridden while we stayed with my parents.
Susannah managed to crawl inside the stool, sit up, make some faces at us and then go over the bar to climb out. All without knocking over the stool or hurting herself. Who said girls are calm and well-mannered hasn't met my little one.
We had a blast at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo Michigan. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area. It has things for 2 year old's up through grownups.

The art of being flexible

God seems to continually need to teach us how to be flexible. We moved to Asia planning to live there for years. Yet God only had plans for us to be there 15 months. Flexibility. Even day to day living was a lesson in constant change.

This week is another good example. We had planned on spending 3 nights in Yellowstone and 2 nights in Thermopolis, Wyoming. We had a beautiful drive over Beartooth Mountain Pass (if you have never done this drive I highly recommend it) and into Yellowstone. After setting up camp, cooking dinner, and enjoying some wonderful family time, Pete and Susannah both woke up sick around midnight. Thankfully Pete only had altitude sickness and at the time we were hoping that was all Susannh had too. So the next morning we took down the tent and packed up the car to leave. We stopped in Thermopolis to swim for a few hours, thinking everyone was feeling better, and then drove onto Casper to spend the night there. While searching for a hotel room Susannah was sick all over her car seat and the pile of things next to her. So we knew she had the flu bug Isaiah had had the previous week. There were no empty rooms in Casper so we had to drive another hour down the road to find a place to spend the night. Sometimes you just have to accept what you get. Nothing about the week went as we had planned but we still really enjoyed the little bit of time we had together as a family.

We're learning Lord...slowly were learning.

On the road...again

We head out on the road once again tomorrow. This time we'll be enjoying the drive between Billings, MT and Fort Collins, CO. Instead of a one day quick drive down we are planning on a week long camping trip. A few nights in Yellowstone and then a few nights in Thermopolis, WY at their hot springs. It's suppose to be cold and rainy all week so we'll see how long we last. It is also our first attempt at car camping with 2 little kiddos. Pray for us!

Our time in Montana was wonderful and tiring. We visited with many friends and even took a trip up to Beartooth Mountain Christian Ranch, where we went to Bible college. The fresh air was incredible. There were days during the past year when we dreamed of breathing the air in Absarokee. Where we lived in Asia the air was so polluted that there were days we could not see the end of the block. We also had the chance to share in 4 churches about how Great God is and what he has been doing on our lives. If we missed seeing you we are truly sorry. Know you are loved and apperciated everyday.

Onto Colorado...maybe we'll see you next.

Time spent with family

The month of May brought us to Michigan for a spiritual growth and renewal retreat. Since we were only about 2 hours from my extended family we took time to visit. This gave us the chance to introduce Susannah to her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. It was a special time, possibly the last time we'll see Grandma this side of heaven. She has advanced Alzheimer's and won't be around too much longer. My kids are like number 65 and 69th grand/great-grand kids for them. So many cousins, some I have never even met. So we really enjoyed our few hours with her and a dinner out with Grandpa.
To make the time even more special both of my sisters drove over from Wisconsin for the weekend. It was so much fun to spend even a little bit of time with them. Jane lives in Florida and we have only seen her for about 10 hours in the past year and a half; it was such a blessing that once again we ended up in the same state at the same time. Liz is in Wisconsin so we've seen her a little more but still not nearly enough.


Also during May we were in Wisconsin with my parents and Liz for a few days. Liz and Isaiah played together for hours outside my parents house. Isaiah loved having so much room to roam in and dogs to play with.
We all went to the zoo one day and had fun seeing all the animals. It was not hot so the animals were all really active. We saw the polar bear playing in the water and a couple of grizzlies rear up and growl at each other. Isaiah loved to feed the goats and see all the birds (the have peacocks that wander all over and we got to see beautiful displayed of feathers).
Susannah also had fun riding in the stroller and being carries my Grandma all day. In all what a busy month but full of rich memories. I'll post more about the Air Museum we went to in Michigan, those pictures are all still on the camera as of now.

I've given in and join the blog world

I'm excited to be able to share our lives with others via this blog. It may take a few weeks for me to work out all the kinks and figure this thing out so please be patient with me.