I Didn’t See It Coming

This is the beginning of busy. The week before last  at the nursing home,  I hosted a TN/AL Divided House Party. Last week was the Halloween Party. This week is Halloween and I am preparing for our Women of Covenant weekend. I had to work both Saturday and Sunday and today the body and mind shut down. My BP was 188/110 and the nurses insisted that I go to the ER. I was having Shortness of Breath which felt like anxiety except I was having chest, shoulder and arm discomfort. I was there from 10:30-5:00. The EKG, chest X-ray, and blood work were all good. Blood pressure finally came down after 4 hours of resting and nitrate? I think they said.

On the drive to work this morning, I remembered the scripture my mama shared with me when the kids were young and we were driving teenagers all over Georgia. God promises, “As thy days so shall thy strength be.” Deut. 33:25 Meaning that He will provide the strength needed for each day.

Connor had a birthday party- 7 years old! We decorated cookies, painted rocks and pumpkins two weekends in a row and I’m getting ready for my MK Holiday Open House.  As I write this, I am

Understanding why the meltdown. Mania spirals.

I didn’t see it coming this time.

Hugs to you. Prayers Appreciated

Bonnie

Pretty In Pink

Among a few of my favorite things is Pink and Mary Kay Cosmetics.  The name of my business Facebook page is Bonnie's Pretty in Pink.  Everyone who knows me knows my love for all things PINK. 

As I said in my last post, I am working a most stressful job. I have to make time-seriously pencil it in-time for my babies. It makes me sad that I rarely know my 2 month old because I'm working all the time.  I know that Mary Kay is not a cure-all.  It scares me to death to be doing this again, but I so want to get out of the rat-race of living the fast-paced manic lifestyle.  If I can make this work, I can work a part-time job for less money and do what I love.  This is in me.  Do you hear me?  I've done this successfully before and had fun with it off and on for 20 years.

I don't want to go through a door that has been shut, but I do pray for open doors as I embark upon this journey that I started years ago.  I'm also praying for God's will in other areas of ministry.

In 1987, God called me to teach women.  Although, I have done this in some capacity from time to time, I feel like I have most often been in the middle of the Jordan. I'm no longer in Egypt, but I'm not in my Promised Land either.  I'm praying that God will open my eyes and ears to His will and His direction.


If you love Mary Kay and have no consultant, please give me a chance to serve you. You can order directly from the above site.  If you spend over $50, I will go in and defray the cost of shipping.

Thank you so much.  My posts will not be about my business.  Just trying to get the word out. 
www.marykay.com/bhitchcock

Happy Fall Y’all

Oh what a beautiful morning! I’m singing🏈🎼 . It finally feels like Fall in Middle Tennessee.

I don’t do a lot of Fall decor. I keep it sweet and simple.

I’ve been very busy at work, 10-12 hour days. Again, I didn’t see myself doing this at this time in my life. I come home exhausted and wake up tired but when I’m talking one on one with one of my residents and I know I’m bringing joy, I’m happy. 

I spend my Saturdays with my babies and cherish each moment.

Once again, I am doing Mary Kay and preparing for my Holiday Open House.

We have new awesome skin care and I love it!

Visit me at www.marykay.com/bhitchcock. Be on the look out for Pink Friday deals. (Black Friday) If you’re out of anything, feel free to shop.

Hope to catch up with you later.

Happy Fall Y’all!

Bonnie

I am so glad to be going home to GA for a few days. It’s been a busy two weeks. We have a new baby, Claire Grace, who was a week old on Monday.

I just can’t get enough! They are super excited. My little girl is trying to find her place in this threesome. She has been the baby for 4 1/2 years. You can see those raw emotions in her little face. 

These are my favorites! 

One more and this makes me swell with pride.

This Instagram screen shot was on Christina’s page. My baby with his baby! I love the way they love each other and those babies. 

I’ll miss them all this weekend, but a few days away will be good.

This one is on her way to Disneyworld!

See ya soon!

Goodbye Facebook, Hello Blogging Friends.

I am taking a break from Facebook for several reasons.

 

First, it's time-consuming.

It becomes an obsession, always with a phone in hand and

not a moment when the mind is at rest-
an empty-brain zone.

 

Second, because of all of the above, we are looking for

others to comment, like or share. 

 

"Others have comments, why don't I."

Secretly I am screaming, "Validate me! Make me feel loved, accepted

and approved."  When my sense of worth and approval should always come

from my Maker.

 

This has been a hard few months for us, a test.

David has always been the strong one,

never sick. 

We've sought peace, pursued it and experienced it.

 

However, if the enemy can't get in one way, he'll try another.

He's tried, through Facebook, to convince me that our friends at home,
because they didn't comment, didn't care.

That we were gone and forgotten.
He is a LIAR! 

 

Last, there's always the tendency to compare.

"Her family's perfect."

"They always get vacations! The only trip I get is to the grocery store."

 

Thus, the break and maybe more blogging,

more time in the Word,

and more peace.

 

When I am blogging, I tend to look for the beauty in things-
my collections, the things and people that I love, nature and

the things that matter most.

 

Take for instance, this morning I had to mail a package.

While doing so, I passed a couple of yard sales.

I stopped. I backed up and spent a few minutes talking

to strangers, a simple pleasure that I haven't done in awhile.

 

As turning down the road to go home, I spotted a fence

that I pass everyday.

I noticed. I stopped. I turned around.
 

I enjoyed the beauty of the rusty and crusty,

and I took the time to consider the fence.

Fences
(I blogged a few years ago.)

 

how fences, keep others out.

how some fences can puncture and wound.

how fences, can stop us from going further.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, we fence ourselves in by

keeping others out. 

 

We are wounded so we keep others out.

We wound because others have kept us out.

 

I passed a fence that was open.

I started to turn in.

The "No Trespassing" sign was an indication to

"Keep Out!"

I obeyed.

Therefore, no photo.

 

Sometimes, we open our fences just a bit,

but our sign continues to read,

"No Trespassing."

 

Sometimes fences are hidden as was one that I passed.

Had I tried to walk through the path that I thought

was a passage, I would have been stopped from going in.

 

Fences...I'll be thinking on this when I'm sitting quietly...

without a cell phone in hand.

By the way, we found out
that David has a full bladder of stones.
He has a couple of large ones and the rest are like grains of sand.
His prostate is another problem, but no cancer.
A couple of surgeries or one.
He is waiting to find out.

We're good and thankful and praising God
that's it's not a tumor which we honestly considered.

Thanks for your prayers,
Bonnie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Summer's End

It's past my bedtime, but I'm wide awake.  David is having a procedure tomorrow.  The kidney's were fine.  They are doing a cystoscopy and a scan tomorrow, looking at the bladder and the prostate.  We are believing for good results, but hope to get some answers about what is going on.  He's doing well.  His appetite has returned and his color is better, but we still have some concerns.  I've taken the morning off, of course, to be with him.  I may just take the day off.  I desperately need a break! I'm taking a long weekend off for Labor Day.

We have had 15 new admissions in the past couple of weeks.  I feel like I am meeting myself in the halls.  The active residents are jealous and demanding of my time.  Some of them are down-right rude to the new members.  Oh, God, as my mama prayed, keep me sweet in my old age.


Our babies are doing well.  Our newest granddaughter, Claire Grace is due any day.  We can't wait.

Connor started back to school.

 



 

 Mommy and baby needed to take it easy this summer,

so they enjoyed a great stay-cation.

They were busy going to the pool, the library, the zoo,

friend's houses, VBS all summer!

They had fun and hated to see it end.

 

 

Cora and I had a girl's day on Saturday

and Harper and I enjoyed the pool

on Sunday.  She had hoped that Cora

would come and she cried,

"I want to see my sister!"

They really do love like sisters.

I guess BonBon wasn't enough on this day.

 

I'll really be happy to see this summer end. 

The AC has been out on my hall at work.

I steal away in my office to get cool when I have a chance.

 

I'm signing off.

Hope to have a new internet service soon.

 

 

With Praise and a Grateful Heart

I’m sorry that’s it’s taken me so long to share the news. It’s truly been a test of learning to wait on the Lord. Every time I wanted to call a friend or google symptoms and blood tests, I sensed the Holy Spirit say, “Trust Me.”  The children were scared. I could see it in their eyes. My PA son said, “I’m not gonna say I’m not worried.” This is the child who gets upset only about heart issues(his specialty). 

I believed for the best, but prepared for the worse. I can’t tell you how overwhelming it was to walk into a waiting room of sick people and magazines and flyers about cancer treatments everywhere. God was faithful and I had walked in peace but before we saw the doctor, I thought I may throw up. 

I told the nurse of having no idea what was going on, no explanation about blood work, a 3 week wait after an immediate referral to oncology. The doctor came in quickly after looking at new blood draws. 

She looked to be in her 20s. They get younger and younger. She put us at ease right way when she said, “Oncology doesn’t automatically mean cancer.” Her words, “Your labs are perfect.”  Not borderline. Not high. Not low. “PERFECT.”  She feels like it was a virus that seems to be causing blood values to go down instead of up.  She said she had been called to consult on 3-4 in hospital patients with the same symptoms and labs. 

I honestly believe his sickness has been related to the tick bite a few months ago because he’s been sick since then. Whatever the case may be, I know that He has experienced God’s healing hands. He is having some more issues and will see a urologist tomorrow. We know, trust, rely on the Lord who has brought us this far. We know that He has all things under control.

We’ve not spent much time with the kiddos. I needed this respite!

Thanks for your prayers. I continue to believe in a God who loves us so completely and He has a hope and a future for us! (Jeremiah 29:11)

Quietly Trusting God

It's been a while.  I've had such a hard time with Blogger and my not being computer-savvy doesn't help.  It takes me so long to post on my phone and then who knows, it may or may not post.  I just want to thank you for understanding when I don't reply or visit your blogs. I keep hoping that things will slow down a bit so that I can get back to connecting with my buddies. 

I am writing to ask you to pray. David has been sick off and on since a tick bite and a diagnosis of Lyme Disease.  No lab work.  Just urgent care and the bulls-eye rash. Oh how I wish we had followed up with his primary doctor. He has had various "viruses" and "flu-like symptoms" and has visited Urgent Care several times since then. Almost three weeks ago, he got a tremendous headache. His joints were aching.  He had chills and fever.  When he went to our Primary Care Physician, he had lost 20 pounds since his visit 3 months prior.  They did some blood work in the office.  His labs were not good, but they thought they must be a fluke.  The test for Lyme Disease was sent off and he was told to come back for repeat lab work on Monday.  (This was a Thursday.)  His blood was negative for Lyme Disease.  The initial CBC was low on all counts, WBC, RBC, Hct, Hgb, etc.  They were not "critical" but still low.  Being in healthcare for 35 years, I've seen enough labs to know that this is abnormal.  The repeat labs showed the same thing.  The next phone call was a referral to Tennessee Oncologist.  Our PCP never talked to him about the possibilities.  It was an automatic referral. 

The story to find God's peace is a testimony in and of itself.  Sometime when God's finished giving us a miracle, I'll share how very real He has been to me.  Right now, I am at peace.  I am not being negative, but realistic that the results may not be what we'd like to hear.  Or God may have already answered our prayers and he will be clear when we get there Thursday.  Either way, God has been working through it all.  He is going to be okay.  In my spirit, God spoke to me and said, "This sickness will not end in death."  Someone else said, "He will live and not die."  And I added, "And proclaim the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living." There's so much of a redemptive work going on here, in our marriage, with our children, with family, in our finances.  Keep us in your prayers.

We love the 4th of July.  David was not feeling well, the kids and myself were a little rattled by it all, but we wanted to get together.  We like to invite Christina's mom and dad every year.  We can watch the fireworks at the fair from our back deck. We do our own version of fireworks.  Getting together with family always helps, although I was not myself and a bit on edge. 

I hope you'll enjoy the photos.

 

The girls may look a little frightened but they were really troopers

and had a blast. 

 

They really do love each other and Connor

is such a good big brother and cousin.

 



 These two are total opposites.  Cora is our spontaneous little firecracker princess.

Can these two words be used in the same sentence?

 

Harper is quiet and shy but a real drama queen.

Can those descriptions fit together?

 

Yes and Yes.

 

I love that they are different and special.

 

 

And Connor, oh my goodness!

He is a typical first born, sweet, sensitive and kind.

 

 

You can't see it, but there was a greater display.

 

Look at the wonder in those eyes!

Right now, this picture stirs my heart like nothing else. 

He loves His Grandy, they all do. We all do.

I just can't imagine anything being wrong.

 

Thanks for your prayers!

 

TRUST-that's what we're doing.

A verse somewhere says,

"In quiet trust is your salvation."

 

It has become our salvation as we quietly trust.

May we not forget who is the King of the World.