Christmas MIRACLES & a R.A.C.K. Update

first of all... merry Christmas Eve!!!!  i haven't blogged in awhile, and one of the things i pride myself on is being real... so here's a REAL look at:

 

GONSER CHRISTMAS 2012

 

 

this is the first year for RACK... Random Acts of Christmas Kindness...  we started like mad men!!  we were going 100 mph!  then... school programs... and baking... and SICKNESS... and empty wallets... GOT US. 

 

this first year was totally an experiment.  we have a small stack of RACK's we still need to do, and WE WILL!  even if we're RACK'ing in January!  and we learned some things along the way.  we decided on some things we'll do differently next year, but we will DEFINITELY do it again! 

 

i will do a  more complete update to let you know other RACK's we did and ones we still need to do... 

 

CHRISTMAS MIRACLES...  this Christmas has been... sort of... Magical... i can't put my finger on it... it's not like one BIG thing... it's a bunch of little things... one of which i'll share now...

 

our family has an "idealistic" life... but most people don't know the truly broken road both mike and i had to travel to get where we are today.  we literally had to strap on hip waders and crawl out of holes... no joke!  some of the adversity, i'm sure we'll share some day... but some is too difficult to even talk about...  but, it's because of what we've overcome that we can truly appreciate what we have today!! 

 

it's difficult for me to share my intimate faith with God sometimes... i know... i SHOULD shout it from the roof tops, but sometimes, i'm just afraid i'll sound like a lunatic.  but here goes!  in december 2011, i was cleaning my craft room, which is a daunting task!!  and clear as day, God told me "you don't have to worry about money anymore."  wow... ok... i totally thought i was either:  a)  insane  or b)  making it up myself.   soooo... i just ignored it.  throughout the year, when financial worries would arise, i'd hear this quiet "i told you, you don't have to worry..."   so, i'd try to relax... and SURE ENOUGH... EVERY FINANCIAL "CRISIS" WAS HANDLED!!!!  2012 was AMAZING!  mike got a new job... then went back to his previous employer, only to a NEW position and a raise... and within two months, he'd been promoted again with ANOTHER raise!  i got a fantastic bonus... we started a small business at home with unbelievable success... 2012 was a BLESSED YEAR! 

 

we took our children + 3 of their friends to florida for thanksgiving and had an amazing time... when we got back, we were ready to BLESS others like we'd never done before!  and we did!  maybe TOO good.... last week... looking at my checking account... i was stressing... i get like that... and there was that voice "don't worry..."  but it was hard... we'd been RACK'ing and blessing people... providing gifts, trees, food, beds... to people around our community... and friday, december 21st, i felt like i needed someone to RACK ME!!!!  i wasn't happy with the gift i'd gotten mike... we still had 3 gift cards to buy... ugh... a bill to pay... i couldn't see how we would accomplish all this...

 

i trudged in to work... jumped on the on-line bank site... and nearly had a HEART ATTACK!!!  there... overnight, our account had DOUBLED!!!  i couldn't understand... i was in shock.... i quickly clicked to see WHY!  there it was... a deposit from mike's work... WHY???  payday was last week?  and then i knew... God told me "when you don't see a way, I do... I told you NOT to worry".  i seriously didn't know what to do... humbled by God's goodness and faithfulness... even when i... in my human blindness... don't see a way... God has a plan!  i called mike... even he didn't know he'd gotten a Christmas bonus! 

 

i'm sharing this story to offer hope... mike is always reminding me, i can't save everyone... and he's right... i can't...  but Jesus can!  and if you need some hope in your life... Jesus is the way!  i swear... He'll bring a PEACE to your life you've never known before! 

 

the first "real" tree we've had!  so beautiful!

 

brady's crafty work!!

 

waaaayyy too many gifts.... i struggle with this... but mike and i agree... we don't spoil the kids TOO much.... there are no ipads under here!  maybe a comb or two...???

 

 

 

 

 

no Christmas is complete without a handmade ornament!!  britt made us this!

 

 

 

 

 

some of our decorations.......

brady checking out our tree!



dropped off the face of the earth???

i can honestly say, the last... three weeks have been a blur.......

and the farthest thing from my mind has been furniture....

front and center has been....

our beloved dog Skylar :)

i think it's safe to say "the skylar saga" started way back in september.  sometimes i find long drawn out explanations just as exhausting to write as i'm sure they are to read... so here's what happened...

-  sept 24... find out sky is preggers.  mixed joy.  totally not planned, but i love me some puppies!

-  end of october... sky's belly really isn't getting bigger... now we're getting worried...

-  november 2... find out sky lost all her babies :(  AND ate a dime

-  a few days later... sky poops out the dime :)

-  around november 14th, our family is getting ready to leave for florida.  we REALLY need a vacation!  sky really doesn't want to eat.  she LOOKS depressed.... 

-  november 19... sky is with gpa john... doesnt want to eat.  i call the vet from florida and gpa takes her in.  the vet thinks sky is fine other than she's very sad we are gone and she misses her pal rudy: 

they are BEST BUDS!

 

 



-  november 24... we get home from florida.  sky goes NUTS when she sees us!!  talk about a happy puppy!  buuuut.... she still doesn't want to eat.

-  november 25... i sit on the kitchen floor, spoon feeding skylar vanilla pudding... the ONLY thing she'll eat, and i'm basically forcing her to...

-  november 26... i call the vet.  she gets us in right away that morning.  she notes that skylar doesn't look well... she's lethargic and appears dehydrated.  strange considering she was drinking TWO giant dishes of water a day...   the vet does blood work.  sky's kidneys are failing. 

WHAT?!?!  my ONE year old dogs kidneys are FAILING!?!?  the vet comes up with three reasons:
             1.  born with bad kidneys (will mean heaven for sky)
             2.  Addison's (a condition that will require life long treatment)
             3.  leptospirosis (a curable bacterial infection)

clearly, we were hoping for #3... or even #2.

so... the vet pumps sky full of fluid because she's dehydrated and we head home to wait......

that "hunch back" is the fluid.  yuck.

 

 

sky was supposed to be on "bed rest"... which wasn't too difficult... she was pretty lethargic still...

 

"resting" at mommy's work

 

ALL THAT HAPPENED ON A MONDAY....

 

Tuesday and Wednesday that week, sky was great!!!! by Thursday....

 

SHE CRASHED.... mike and i talked it over at lunch... we had an appointment with the vet at 5:00... we'd learned from test results she didn't have Addison's...  we were prepared to say goodbye to our girl that night...

 

i let the kids know...  they all said tearful goodbyes.

 

mike brought sky and met me at the vets.

 

i had some pop tarts in my purse that i'd forgotten to eat for breakfast...  i offered them to sky.  i figured if she was heading to heaven, she should go out with a bang!   she loved the pop tarts!

 

IN BURSTS THE VET!!!!!

 

"IT'S LEPTO" she screamed!  Lepto... the totally curable bacteria!!! 

 

BUT DON'T GET TOO EXCITED..........  sky's case was VERY BAD... Purdue University suggested we try to save her given her age... but the kidney damage may be too far.........

 

TREATMENT STARTED....

sky spent all day Friday getting an IV fluid treatment.....

 

and we haven't been able to keep her off the trampoline since!!! 

 

that was almost two weeks ago.....  tomorrow we'll go and get the final blood work done!  Purdue says she survived because she's so young and otherwise healthy...

 

but we all know it's because of prayer.

 

sky is back at it!  terrorizing the neighbors and hanging out with her "boyfriends"  :)  it's pretty cute actually! 

 

so there you have it.... i'm still here... and now that this is BEHIND us... i'm ready to get back at it!!!! 

 

oh... of course i need to add some random "isn't my dog the cutest ever" pictures!!!

 

she's always loved sleeping on pillows!  not so cute now at 56 lbs!

loooong tongue!

terrorizing my flowers!

that mean dog in the mirror NEVER leaves her alone ;)

she STILL gets up to the table!  geesh!

(never mind me and my "no make-up" Saturday look)  she's my love baby for sure!!!  <3 <3 <3

 





RACK'ing Days 1-6... plus some EXTRA Random'ness :)

RACK'ing
okay!!  here we go!!  if you missed the blog where i explained RACK'ing... you might want to read it!  but in a nutshell, RACK= Random Acts of Christmas Kindness
our family has one to do everyday until Christmas.
i found some RACK ideas on-line and made some up myself.
here's what we've done in the first SIX days!!! 

DAY 1-  leave a treat for our mail carrier

whew!  we started our first day with a very simple one!  randomly i swear!  i had just done some baking for a cookie exchange so the timing was God given!  we put some treats in a container and left them with a RACK note in our mailbox! 

 

 

  DAY 2-  donate hats and gloves to our elementary school

one thing our "bigs"... lexi and brady, have learned is in our little community of Jimtown, all is not "equal"...  Jimtown has a considerable amount of "poverty".  lexi and brady are extremely sensitive children and are both saddened by this.  this was a great task for us.  first, we cleaned out our own stash of winter wear.  i'm ashamed to admit we found enough Hats, Scarves, and Gloves/Mittens that we don't use, to fill an entire kitchen garbage bag!!  those were our first donation.  then mike went to walmart and bought 10 little girl hats & gloves.  10 little boy hats & gloves, 10 big girl hats & gloves, and 10 big boy hats & gloves.... that was our second donation.

 

 

 

DAY 3-  pay on someones lay-away

this was a great one!!  sireana went to our local walmart with $50 in hand.  at the customer service desk, she quietly whispered to the walmart employee "my family is doing random acts of christmas kindness and i would like to pay off someones lay-away.  can i do that?"  the cashiers first reaction was a stunned face.  then she said "yeah!".  sireana explained she had $50 and she'd like to pay someones off entirely... the cashier found one for $35, but sireana said she'd like to use the entire $50.  the cashier looked further and found one for $50.27.  PERFECT!  sireana paid it off and left a RACK card for the person!  they will go in expecting to make a payment, only to find it's paid in full!  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY 4-  deliver a tree to a stranger.
here's brady looking for the perfect tree.  we did deliver one... to the wrong house!!  we received a request for a Christmas tree via our craigslist ad...  and they gave us their address... which we could NOT find!!!  so we left it on what we THOUGHT was their porch and sent them an email.  thankfully, they were able to go get it!  we were close... right across the street!!! 



 

 

DAY 5-  Send Christmas cards to Military Men & Women
brady's note melted my heart :)   we all wrote personal notes in the cards... and we sent them to an organization in Maryland that i found on-line

DAY 6- Hand out gift cards to random people...
 

 our assignment was to hand out gift cards to random strangers.... so armed with $60, we headed to our local Walmart.  we chose 12 gift cards and loaded them up with $5 each.  then we headed out into the store.  we decided to hit different departments and randomly pick people.  the first couple of people looked slightly stunned.  all we did was walk up to them, hand them a card and RACK slip and say "we are doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  Here's a $5 gift card".  A young lady in the baby department was very thankful :)  .  a young family in the shoe department definitely won the "appreciative award"!  the look on their faces was priceless!  we did have one guy say no to brady :(  i'm not sure i understand that... but oh well...  we tried to give to a variety of people:  an older couple, a mom struggling with a crying child in the toy isle, a young family, single men, single moms, single women... young and old... all ethnicity's... IT WAS AWESOME!!!

 

would we do it again??  ABSOLUTELY!!!  only next time... with more money!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXTRA RANDOMness....

 

 

a friend of ours seemed to need some holiday cheer, so we delivered crafts for her to make (she LOVES crafts!!) and some goodies to enjoy!

 

and....

 

we "adopted" a family of five from CAPS and bought them presents...

 

Sireana delivered 2 big bags of groceries to a family in need...

 

Brady & Lexi bought toys for two little boys in Mishawaka...

 

Sireana gave a Pack-N-Play to a single mom with no bed for her 10 month old...

 

My dad Jim gave firewood to a family who desperately need to stay warm....

 

My dad Jim is cleaning up the yard of a man who's in a wheelchair after an auto accident...

 

We gave two packs of Goodnights to a little boy with a congenital bladder condition...

 

Lexi RACK'd her great grandma by stopping on the spur of the moment to give her a hug :) ...

 

 

 

********************************************************************

things we want to do differently next year...

 

next year, we probably won't "adopt" a family...

 

place our craigslist ad alittle earlier and try to help more people...

 

instead of one person coming up with all 24 RACK ideas, everyone contribute four ideas...