Hangin' w/ Caiden :D

Hanging w/ Caiden after he got his new eye. K, so he wasn't the most cooperative but we got him to laugh nonetheless :) I love that kid and his family! His brother Bretten and sister Josi are the cutest kids ever and of course Caiden is too! Love that red hair!!

Memorial Day Weekend......Remembering Our Troops

Remember our troops this weekend for all their sacrifices to make us free! God bless our troops and thank You for the stand they are taking for our freedom. Protect them. Keep them safe. Place Your guardian angels around them to protect them from all evil. God bless America. Bring us back to You.

Memorial Day Weekend is here and I had the high honors of creating the banner for WCSG's next "Change West Michigan Challenge" -> Tribute to Troops. This is the first banner I have ever designed and I gladly took on the challenge. What you see above is what I have created, but I give all the credit to God for making it happen. W/o Him, this never would have happened. I actually took the pic of the flag. It is currently flying proudly on my mom's house... I had asked her to put her flag out so I could take a pic of it for this banner. I was pleasantly surprised with how it all turned out!

Check it out on WCSG: WCSG.org

Pirates Out This Weekend!!

Roommates... Will we be able to stand each other?

Yes, 'tis true. I now have roommates. Will we be able to handle each other? I'm not used to sharing my space... If not, then they will have to go. :) Fortunately, they don't eat much, and they don't take up too much space. Only about the size of 10 gallons. Plus their smell is contained in their room. Yes, the first live thing (besides me) has just moved into my house and is currently residing w/ me for a little longer than a visit. More like two and a half weeks. Like I said, if we can't stand each other, they CAN be flushed ;) If you haven't guessed it yet... yes, there are about 4 fish and 8 snails currently under my care. Will they survive? Nobody knows... I can care for the smallest of babies, but can I keep 4 fish and 8 snails alive for about 2 and a half weeks? Survival of the fittest :) I think the snails will survive as they tend to multiply quite readily. How many snails do you think there will be by the end of the two and a half weeks? How many fish will there be by the end of the two and a half weeks? If the fish multiply... Ha! I'm doing very well then ;) Don't count on it though...

Ugh... just got done w/ three 12 hour shifts in a row. I don't recommend it. I can hardly keep my eyes open, let alone have brain function. Let's just say that tomorrow will be a brain freeze day where I don't do much of anything but sleep, chill out, sleep, and oh yeah, chill some more :D I do have the mission trip meeting that night, but the rest of the day... Oh yeah, chill out and sleep :P Hopefully my brain will be up for functioning for the meeting, but if not... my utmost apologies ahead of time!

I'm so excited though! Rich Anderson (WaYfm morning show co-host) is now going to Jamaica with us!! Three of my friends from WaYfm are now going on this mission trip... George Moss, John Balyo and Rich Anderson. Plus my friend Beth is going as well. This trip is going to rock! Please pray for us as we continue to plan our ministry work... We have just 3 weeks till we leave! Time is FLYING!! My biggest fear is that the trip is going to come and go so fast and be done before we know it... But God is good. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Please also pray that the funds for the trip will come in for our team as it's coming in very slowly at this point in time. We have about half of what we currently need... But I will say it again: God is good. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and serve His commands.

So PRAY on!

Caiden meets Tommy & Brook

Caiden meets his prayer warriors ~ Tommy & Brook

Caiden before receiving his new eye - he has a clear prosthetic in.

Caiden sportin' his new eye!

For those of you who don't know Caiden's story... Caiden has been fighting a rare childhood cancer - Bilateral Retinoblastoma - cancer of the eyes for the last 2 years. He is now 3 years old. He did need to have his left eye removed d/t the strong nature of the cancer in this eye. As hard as that day was, Caiden is now doing well and is full of energy! Yesterday was a big day for Caiden. He started out his morning meeting his prayer warriors, Tommy and Brook (from WCSG radio - www.wcsg.org/morningshow), and then he also had permission to interrupt a big meeting! He had the opportunity to be the entertainment for Jack, Chris, Lee, Randy, Rich and Brian in the midst of their meeting. They loved him and he enjoyed interacting w/ them :D Caiden has many prayer warriors here at WCSG ~ Tommy and Brook, along w/ Michael, Jack and Chris. After the guys prayed for him, Caiden then went on to the doctor's office to receive his new eye! He looks great! Thanks for praying and please continue to do...

How can you continue to pray for him? Caiden still has a few cancer spots in his right eye that are being controlled with laser treatments - pray against these spots. Also pray for full restoration of vision in his right eye.

Darci and Jamie (his mom & dad), Caiden, and I thank you for all your prayers and support, b/c "it's what got us through."

Mark Is Biking Across America NOW!!

Check out Mark's video blogs of each day! Click here:

Mark's Video Blogs

To support Mark, click here:

Mark Across America

My friend, Mark Schultz is currently biking across America!! Please pray and support him as he raises money for the least of these... widows and orphans. He has video blogs up where he recaps each day. They are so worth checking out... Click here: Mark's Video Blogs. To support Mark and check out his site... Click here: Mark Across America.

Go Mark GO!! Godspeed! My prayers and support are w/ you!!

Mark Schultz (Amanda, Mark)




Also, my friends from Rush of Fools and Article One have just debuted their albums and they are SO worth giving an ear to! I love 'em! Click here to check 'em out:

Rush of Fools

Article One

Rush of Fools (Wes, Amanda, Kevin)


Article One (Nate, Amanda, Dave, Matt)

65,525 steps, Meconium Maidens & Translucent Torpedoes

65,525 is how many steps I took this week! I was the top person in my team of 4, and that is in spite of what happened to me on Monday. I was not anticipating that at all! I thought for sure I'd be towards the bottom of our team. If you are so confused as to what I'm talking about... Spectrum Health is doing the Healthy Heart Steps Challenge once again! We have made teams of 4 and wear pedometers to track our daily steps. Then we add up our steps for the week, submit them to our team captains, who then combines our steps together to average out our team's weekly steps. We are competing against other teams on our unit and t/o the hospital. Way too fun! We keep asking each other how many steps we got in a day at work. 2000 steps = 1 mile. Yesterday, at work alone, I had about 8000 steps, which equals 4 miles! That's a lot of walking at work! Try that office people! ;)

As we do this, we are raising funds for a charity... My team chose Make-A-Wish Foundation. Our team name is the Meconium Maidens. (If you have no idea what meconium is, google it... I'm not going to "gross" anyone out.) Not my first choice, but for what's it's worth, it's cool :) My teammates liked it, so it works. Goes right along w/ our unit's softball team name... Translucent Torpedoes. If you wanna know why... ask me personally and I'll GLADLY tell you the story behind Translucent Torpedoes. In fact, I will soon have a t-shirt that has that on it :)

I love my job and unit!! We have WAY too much fun :)

Feeling better...

My headache broke around 11:30am. Glad for that! I just happened to notice at that time that it was gone. The aches are pretty much gone too. I think I over did it last night. My body and head weren't too happy w/ me. I told my mom what I did and boy, did she ostracize me :) Guess, I deserved it... She keeps threatening to take my blades away, but I won't let her :) She didn't give up softball after she's gotten hurt, why should I give up skating?

Anyway, I'm going to be laying low... no more running for me for a while. My head/brain needs to heal as I learned from running that it's more injured from the fall than I thought...

The Sky Was On Fire

Since my arm and body has been healing quite progressively, I decided to attempt to ease back into the whole exercise groove. I went jogging for a mile and then walked another mile or so afterwards after hanging out w/ a good friend from high school :) On my way home after talking w/ my friend, the sky was on fire as the sun was setting... It was gorgeous. God is amazing.

I was feeling okay as I was running/walking - just my abdominal muscles were achy on and off - but it was bearable as I tend to have a high pain tolerance. All was fairly good till I got home and really started to feel it. More so later that night. I started to get cold and achy. In the early morning hours, my head was throbbing. I got up several times for a drink to keep my blood sugar up. That was a huge help to the headache, but it keeps coming back. So, I took some acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) and that's helping. Guess it's a chill out day for me to heal some more! Good thing it's warm out... that really helps.

Prayers for a quick recovery would be very much appreciated! Thanks a bunch!