Hope and Healing: 6 months

Friday, July 12, marked six months since the day I rushed to the hospital after getting the phone call that my sister Hope had fallen and broken her neck.  This is a much better place to be. Though her recovery has seemed slow, it has been amazing to watch her regain so many abilities and movements, and to see her unwavering commitment to thank God for her blessings and to choose joy every day.

At her son's baseball game last week, Hope and I were talking about the good things that have come out of this experience.   I hate it that she has endured so much pain and suffering, but I am so grateful for the precious gift of the renewed relationship with my sister and her beautiful, loving family that this ordeal facilitated.

About 20 years ago, a wall went up between us, not of our own choosing but beyond our control. For awhile, I fought to tear it down, but in the middle of a sleepless night as I was praying about it, I understood God was telling me that I had to forgive those I held responsible and let go for a time. I mourned the loss of this relationship almost as if it were a death, but clung to the hope that someday God would change the situation. Eventually, a door in this wall was unlocked and I occasionally opened it and went for a visit.  In recent years, the door was slightly ajar, but I didn't pass through it as often as I  could have. It seemed like we were too different, too many years had passed and so many changes had occurred - and I had to protect myself in case the door slammed shut again. But when Hope took that life-changing fall, it shattered the wall around my heart, and I couldn't scramble over it fast enough.

As I hurried to the hospital that day, not knowing if my little sister would survive or be paralyzed, my heart was broken to think of how little time I had spent with her during the past 20 years and how little love I had showed to  her and her family.

In spite of all that she has endured since then, it has been so much fun really getting to know her again, to see the wonderful mother she is (to nine terrific children!), to talk and laugh and learn again how much we have in common (such as a passion for purple and an extreme antipathy for outhouses),  and to realize what amazing woman of God she has become. When I observe how she manages her children, her home, and her life, it's hard to believe I once saw her as my hopelessly flighty little sister, aptly nicknamed "Hope Dope Cantalope"!

Hope constantly inspires me to be a better friend, to love God more, to be thankful, to put others first, and to look at life through an eternal perspective. When I go out to walk or run, I am so aware of the blessing of a strong, uninjured body, and I thank God for the strength and health that I enjoy and pray that she will experience it as well.

I still wear the purple "Pray for Hope" bracelet that I got at the beginning of this ordeal.  Please pray with me that God's healing touch will continue to bless her life. I pray that by the time the one year anniversary comes, the numbness and tingling in both her hands will be completely eliminated, that the pain in her neck that so often plagues her will be gone, that her strength and stamina will be restored, and that she will continue to bless and inspire others.

And I thank God that I am privileged to see Jesus in my sister, and that I long to be more like Him because of her.

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

P.S. I'm watching for the leather jackets to come out so we can go shopping!

Really I'm not a Loser!

So we all know that some people lose things more than others. I feel I have a somewhat undeserved reputation. I rarely lose something permanently, I just temporarily misplace items. I can't even tell you how many times Will has said, "If you always put something in the same place, you'll know where to find it." In spite of that annoying and repetitive advice, my keys just don't  always make it to the peg where they are supposed to hang. They end up on top of the fridge, or in my purse, or on my dresser, or in the pocket of the last jacket or pants I wore. The peg is not always in front of me when I need to get the keys out of my hand.

The week before last, I separated my car key from my work/house keys so that a friend could borrow my car. I thought I might as well keep them separate. Friday when I got to work, I remembered why I keep them together. My work keys were still at my desk, and I couldn't get in to the building. I called the custodian, but I only had his home number, not his cell.  The Officemax delivery gal came and I signed for my packages outside the locked door. Fortunately, when I got to looking through classroom windows, I found a custodian and was able to get in. It was a lovely day, and it only took me about 10 minutes to get in, but I learned my lesson and decided I needed to hook those keys back together. But I didn't get around to it that day.

On Monday morning, I got to work and once again realized I didn't have my work key ring. Really, did I leave them at my desk again? My co-worker was there and let me in when I banged on the door. Although I checked all my drawers, looked in all the rooms in the office, under my car seats, and my trunk, no keys were found. I searched my house and my gym bag when I came home. No luck. Mystifying. I seemed to recall using the house key on Saturday night, so they must be at home. What would I do? It's kind of serious to lose the keys to a school. To put it mildly. I have worked there for 13 years and never lost them. Really, it's not like I'm some key loser.

(Okay, I did permanently lose one set of keys in my life, the most expensive one I could lose. It just happened to be the electronic key for the Dodge Durango that we bought way back in what, about 1998? And I lost it shortly after we got it and was stuck using the stupid manual key for the rest of the time we had it.  And back in 1998, I was still a mere child, barely 40. I've matured and become so much more responsible since then.)

So I was fretting about my missing keyring last night, and Will smugly said another one of his favorite phrases, "Well, you know it's wherever you left it. That's where you'll find it." So infuriating. Not helpful. I believe I responded with a cold fake smile. Not easy when it's 95 degrees out there. I tossed couch cushions, but found nothing but popcorn. I searched the house again, but no luck.

This morning I awoke a little after 5, and by the time my phone alarm went off at 6, I was nearly finished with a beautiful sunrise run. I was in a great mood and hungry for a little oatmeal for breakfast, but I opened the cupboard and remembered I had none. (No, it wasn't lost, I clearly remembered emptying the container.) I was hoping I had left some in the trailer last time we camped, so I went to where Will keeps the trailer keys, stretched as far as I could to reach a set, when what to my wondering eyes should appear......Wait, let me just go grab my keys off the countertop so I can take a picture instead of trying to describe this.

Will is a man of many talents, and a few winters ago, he was really into making these awesome little key fobs. If you were at our house, you were likely to walk away with one of these in varying sizes. I didn't ask for this, I kind of prefer to have a key ring that doesn't make a huge pocket bulge, but he graciously gave me this small version. You never know if you might get lost in the woods and need a length of rope. If you do, you can unravel this and do all kinds of useful things with it. Yay. Needless to say, all the key rings in this house have these handy things attached to them. Including the keys for the trailer.

So, as I stretched with all my might to reach the trailer keys, I see my gym card, which you can see above, attached to one of these key rings. None of the other trailer rings has a white card like this. My key ring was underneath the two trailer key rings. Oh, the joy. I danced out to the trailer. Shucks, there was no oatmeal there but who needs oatmeal when you've just escaped a possible prison sentence for losing your school keys. Just then Will returned from his morning walk with the dog and I exclaimed that I had found the keys, and indeed, they definitely were NOT where I had left them! I led him to the location of discovery, and he knew exactly what happened.

Just  before my keys disappeared, I had gone out to the trailer. He noticed the keys hanging on my peg, and thought that I had left the trailer keys in the wrong place. He did not chide me, but graciously took them and hung them where trailer keys belong. He was pleased to note that a long missing third set of keys had apparently returned. In the meantime, he did some reorganizing and put the keys in a little different place, so the top keys ended up on the bottom.

Did you get that? I put the keys on the peg, exactly where they belonged, and they got LOST!! This just goes to show once again, that I am not exaggerating or making lame excuses when I declare that when things go wrong here, it is almost never my fault. It is either Will's fault or a technological/mechanical malfunction. And he fully agrees with me now. It is a wonderful life. I just wish technological malfunctions didn't happen so often. While writing this, I had a song playing twice on the computer, and one had started about 30 seconds after the other one. I am ashamed to admit how long it took me to figure out how to get the last one found and stopped. But I did it all by myself

I really do not deserve my patient, long suffering husband. But I am very thankful for him!

And yes, my car key is now with my work keys so I can't drive to work without them.

Planting Party

I can't imagine my life if I did not live near my family. Yesterday around 4 pm I sent a text to my brothers Doug and Galen and their wives inviting them to come over at 5 pm today and help plant flowers at the flag memorial in honor of our nephew Tyler Troyer at the park behind my house. I mentioned homemade ice cream with fresh strawberries and other snacks would also be available. Not only did they all come, but my lovely niece Venisa and her husband Anthony also joined us. 

I forgot to tell them that the weeds had been neglected for quite awhile too. I also forgot to take a "Before" picture. 

 Did I mention that Venisa and Anthony brought their new labradoodle puppy along?

 There were tons of snails in the spiky plant that Anisa is pruning above. Carol actually touches them! We needed nephews Cody and Brenden to see how many they could collect!

 Doug found time to visit some friends who live on the other side of the fence.

 These girls are such great workers! Notice how they stayed focused and on task!

Here we are with the finished bed. Red geraniums, purple and white wave petunias, and blue lobelia. Not very original but easy, dependable and beautiful. I invited Michael and Terri to come check it out and Michael was kind enough to take this group picture.

 Then back to our backyard where we partook of refreshments and Will showed off one of his latest projects, a little "wood gas reburner". It's supposed to be smokeless. As he explained it, he is tired of people complaining about smoke and putting a bunch of wood on the fire just before they leave. He's always looking for a solution. (I think he's still looking for a solution. I believe there was a bit of smoke.) But entertainment is never in short supply.

So, thank you, brothers, for marrying such awesome women and for having such wonderful children! And perhaps you should all plan to come back in a month so we can have a deadheading and weeding party!

Hope Update: 4 months

For those of you who aren't Facebook friends with Hope, I'm sharing some of her recent posts and pictures so you can hear in her own words how she is doing. Thank you so much to all of you who are still praying and asking about her. It means a lot

She was very thankful that she and Brian were able to visit her daughter Adrienne and her new little one in Ontario a few weeks ago. See how good she looks!

Here's her posts, and I'll put some pics at the end:

May 18:  "I've been doing a lot of thinking today.. actually it's about all I've done. Saturdays have always been such busy days.. cleaning, baking, catch up on laundry or whatever, but not today, not me. I've been on fb and emailing.... and thinking. I came across a quote by my cousin, Janna Pastin, (who I haven't seen for 40+ years).

"When you deliver a praise, your praise will deliver you."

I have found this to be SO true these last 4 months. Giving thanks and praising God gets me through every time, it's just that sometimes it takes me awhile to remember that.

The other thing I read today was the May 17th Holy Experience blog post by Ann Voskamp, writing to her son as he turns 18 and graduates..

"Look... you get what we all get - a life time. Just you or none of us ever get to know how long that will turn out to be."

"Don't waste a minute of your life on anything less than love. Don't waste a minute of your life on anything less than eternity."

"Think of eternity and live backwards from that."

Adrienne and I were talking about this idea last week. Those little quotes like "Everyday moments make the best memories." always used to seem so trite, but with one slip on the step, life changed completely. I'm trying to treasure the moments, the days, they go by so quickly and there is no promise that my "lifetime" will the "threescore years and ten."

"We have this moment to hold in our hand

And to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand.

Yesterday's gone, and tomorrow may never come.

But we have this moment... today."

"Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God..." "

May 23:  "Yes, I am doing better... but I'm not Better.

It's a long road, this recovery thing.

I am walking better, but still can't run.

I can do all my own personal care except comb my hair.

I'm having more muscle pain in my upper back since I'm not wearing the Aspen collar.

My hands are still numb/tingly and nasty feeling.

My fingers can work the keyboard now, after a fashion.

I don't drive a car yet, but can buckle my own seat belt most of time. I usually don't go very far from home because my back complains.

The triceps are coming back very slowly. I don't cook or bake -- I can't open packages or cans, chop onions or lettuce., shape bread or scoop cookies. I did actually slice bread yesterday! I can't really wash dishes, but I can load the dishwasher. It takes triceps to wash counters and clean toilets... I can sweep the floor, and I actually managed to vacuum the other day. I can do laundry, the children usually transfer from washer to dryer, but I can fold clothes... if my back isn't hurting too bad.

It's so true what the therapist told me before I left the rehab center, People will think you're doing better when they see you out and walking around, but you're not, you still have a long way to go.

It's been four months now since the accident. I don't know how long this recovery road is, but my Father does. It's hard, this giving thanks in everything. I am trying to rest in His plan, I know He holds tomorrow and I know He holds me hand.

.. His strength is made perfect in weakness, and His grace is sufficient for me."

May 27:  "We were discussing "Life" in Sunday School yesterday when I was prompted to share something, and as I emailed my family about it today, I knew I had to share it with all of you, too.

I was 11 years old when my mom died of cancer. I thought it was terribly unfair that I didn't have a mom like my friends did. It seems I've heard that her prayer was that she would live long enough to see her first grandchild, and God granted her request. I don't remember how old I was when I started praying that I would live long enough to see all of children grow up and to enjoy years of being a grandma.
I've been told by different medical staff what a miracle it is that I survived the fall of about 18 feet that broke my neck and caused spinal cord injury, and not only that I survived, but that I am walking and still making progress. While I was at the Rehab Center, maybe three weeks after the accident, I got a letter from our daughter, Jenna -- one of the many letters/notes that she sent.
"Mom, I thought of you as I read through the first part of Psalm 21 - Here is a paraphrase of thoughts.....'Your daughter is rejoicing in your strength... You have given her her hearts desire ... She asked life of you and you gave it to her - even length of days....' "
It just made me cry, and still does -- He gave me Life! .. and I'm holding onto the length of days promise!! :)
"For she trusts in You, Lord, through the unfailing love of You, Most High, she will not be shaken." "

So, Hope is definitely OK! It breaks my heart that she still experiences so much pain, and I pray for complete healing.  I love my Tuesday evenings with her and her family, and am having a great time watching those athletic sons of hers play baseball. But they're also pretty good in the kitchen! Here's Justin baking some cookies to share with his team.

And Brandon making some cherry cobbler for his family!

Hope's delightful children make every visit to her home a joy!

Memorial Day Weekend

Friday I was fortunate enough to be given an unpaid furlough day. I'm not special, all the employees of the district I work for received the day off. It was nice of them to add it to a holiday weekend so that we could have four days off. So we headed to a beautiful RV parks nearby, only a 90 minute drive south-east.  Casey's Riverside RV Park in Westfir is on the banks of the Willamette River. I enjoy walking the loop around the campground, looking at the beautiful river as well as all the flowering perennials, shrubs, and planters all over the place filled with flowers as well as veggies such as lettuce, squash, rhubarb, etc. We didn't plan ahead in time to get a river spot, but when I looked out my dining room window, I had a view of a blooming lilac next to two other flowering shrubs. I was happy.

Friday after we were all set up, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.  Will sank into his chair declaring it was time to take a nap in the sun…but he just kept sinking.

 How many chairs have McAnulty men broken in the past decade, I wonder? The chair has been repaired. It seems fairly sturdy, but reclining in it is not recommended.

We did some exploring around the area on Saturday, including a stop at Salt Creek Falls.

 I love it when I see flowers blooming on the edge of a cliff with no help from anyone but the Master Landscaper Himself!

We found some time to take a rest on our evening stroll and enjoy the view from this awesome swing. (This picture was taken on our last visit there in 2009.)

We saw an osprey grab a fish, then flounder trying to get out of the water with his large prize. After some thrashing around, he was finally able to get airborne!

It was a very relaxing weekend, though I was very troubled by the news of the arrest of a young man who is accused of plotting a Columbine-style event at the high school right next door to where I work. I'm acquainted with some of his family members and know that they are kind, caring, well-respected people. I am so thankful that this was reported and stopped. I pray for him, his family and friends, and that all of us will be kind to each other and care more about others than ourselves.

So tomorrow will be a different kind of day than we expected when we left school on Thursday. I'm planning to get there early.

The Great Snail Hunters

Last week as I planted my flower pots, I recalled my dismay last year when snails voraciously ate my beautiful plants with a few days of their planting. I kept an anxious eye on them, removing the snails I saw along the way.  Last summer's active combat with snails was described in this post, Snail War Saga.

So, imagine my delight yesterday when my nephew Cody asked if he could hunt snails again! (Obviously it was a treasured memory of time with Aunt LeAnn!) My great-nephew Brenden eagerly joined this quest. They started in the strawberries, where the hunting was excellent!

Then they moved to the shrubs in front of the house.

"Here's a nice big one!" They each had over a dozen by then, which I thought was amazing!

This was some very active snail seeking! I just love these boys!

Check it out - the cups are labeled "Cody's Snail Jail" and "Brenden's Snail Jail".  Brenden came into the house for something and set his half-full "Snail Jail" on my kitchen counter, nearly giving me a heart attack. He actually seemed to enjoy the knowledge that it brought me discomfort, and was in no great hurry to remove it. Hard to believe that sweet Jody's little boy might have an mischievous streak!

Serena was pleased when her request to hold the cup was granted!

After cake was served, I saw Cody with his plate of cake on the grass while he was looking under a shrub and I remarked that it was ok if he took a break to eat cake. He remarked, "Oh, I'm taking a break," picked up the plate, took a bite, set it back in the grass and continued lifting branches! Unfortunately that picture didn't turn out!

These pots in the back were really ravaged last year. Those snails cling to the grass spikes and inside the lip of the containers.

Jenna had to check it out too.

Brenden was a bit horrified when a large snail tried to escape by climbing up the wall of its jail. Time to dump it in Uncle Will's Snail Rehab!

Then back for more!

Ok, it looks like we're done here!

They dump their bounty.

Cody had more than Brenden, so he helped him find some more over by the dog kennel.

They ended up with more than 100 snails! Some were just the empty shells, but a huge battle was won yesterday in the snail wars, and  many flowers were saved to thrive and multiply and brighten my yard the whole summer long!

Cody and Brenden are now my very favorite nephews, I have to admit. I suspect that within a few days, they will receive a nice surprise in the mail that expresses Aunt LeAnn's appreciation for their help in this great battle she fights, as she strives to protect the lives and the beauty of the flowers she loves and cares for so diligently.

Thank you, Cody and Brenden! Your cheerful hard work hunting these critters brought great joy to me!

Congratulations, Venisa!

My beautiful niece Venisa graduated from George Fox University yesterday, with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education Cum Laude. Just look how totally cute she is! (If you can't read upside down, it says Mrs. Saviola.)

One of the great things about Venisa is that she is even more beautiful on the inside. Kind, compassionate, loving, thoughtful, smart--- the beauty of Jesus is so visible in her. She is going to be a fabulous elementary teacher! She is has already started teaching Pre-K at a private school in Beaverton, which she will continue through the summer, and will teach kindergarten in the fall. Those lucky kids! Children always love Venisa.

We were privileged to provide the location for her graduation party, with about 40 friends and family attending today. Her parents, Doug and Anisa, brought the food, so all we had to do was get the yard presentable and Traeger the chicken. The weather was fantastic, mid-80s with a nice breeze.

She got many gifts for her classroom, including this beautiful sign of 13 Dr. Seuss quotes, made by her mom and grandma.

 Her mother also made these nifty smocks for painting or the "sensory" table.

Anisa, the queen of amazing thrift store finds, has been shopping for a long time for classroom treasures, finding many new books and other items.  Venisa was unwrapping presents for quite awhile, and packing peanuts were dancing on the patio floor like crazy! Her husband Anthony thoughtfully planned ahead and used cash gifts from friends and family to buy her a much desired Nikon camera and iPad. She was thrilled!

Venisa brought me a beautiful pink rose bush to thank me, and explained it was pink to celebrate my health and fitness, and to remember my mother. Though Venisa never knew her grandmother Darlene because cancer took her from us at age 45, long before her birth, the desire to honor her is just another example of the character that makes her such a special person. 

 I love being an aunt to babies, toddlers, children, and teenagers; but it is especially rewarding and wonderful to have relationships with nieces and nephews as they become adults. Venisa is truly a blessing!