Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Tonight as I sit at my laptop in the dark with my son sleeping on one side of this room and my husband on the other, I feel so very grateful for all that God has blessed me with. We have had an incredible time with Brandon's family and look forward to more great times tomorrow when we travel to Indiana.

I read Randy Alcorn's post tonight and wanted to share it. I am not sure what the blog ethics are for doing this sort of thing, but I am copying and pasting here in case you don't want to travel to his blog.

As a child, my favorite part of waking up on Christmas morning was the first waking realization that it was Christmas, which was the best day of the year, even in our nonchristian family. My first move was to jump up and look out my bedroom window to see if it had snowed last night. Usually not, but several memorable times it did. After the snow-check, my brother Lance and I would run to our stockings hung by mom in the living room. I would open the contents slowly, including the ever-present Whitman's Samplers, stretching it out, not wanting it to end.

We got the big presents on Christmas Eve, but there was a special joy in the little treasures wrapped up in the stockings. I didn't understand then that these little gifts represented the greatest gift ever given—God's Son. Now, as an adult, a father and a grandfather, I feel those same childlike feelings, a warmth and anticipation. But what I feel now on Christmas that I didn't many years ago is anticipation for a New Earth, without sin and curse and suffering—a redeemed earth where I will live and work and play and worship and serve with Christian family and friends, and countless new friends besides.

I feel a spirit of adventure not just for the passing joys of Christmas, but for an eternal Christmas, a great story where—as C. S. Lewis put it at the end of the Chronicles of Narnia—every chapter will be better than the one before.

The prayer of my heart this Christmas is that people would understand that Jesus is the person they were made by and made for—that they would understand that He loved them enough to go to the cross for them and pay the price for their sins so that they could live forever with Him on the New Earth, the eternal Heaven.

There's a true story of a Christ-loving man who lay dying. His son asked, "Dad, how do you feel?"

His father replied: "Son, I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve."

Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second . We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the resurrected Christ will return and we, his resurrected people, will live with him forever on the New Earth. And right when we think "It doesn't get any better than this"....it will!

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas as you celebrate the Savior's birth.

Randy Alcorn

From our family to yours...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snow in the Desert? What?

We live in the desert.  And just about everyday is sunny.  So, I get excited whenever it is cloudy...simply because it is out of the ordinary.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when we all got out of Cru and saw that snow had blanketed the campus last Thursday night.  We made quite a scene...with students making snow angels, having snowball fights, and taking lots of pictures.  It was wonderful.

When we got home, I (along with our friend and babysitter, Naomi) immediately woke Caleb up.  There was no way he was missing out on this...even if it was 10:30 at night.  We bundled up and quickly went outside to play.  We built a little snowman, threw snowballs at the wall, and just had a really great time.  It was past midnight before Caleb got to sleep again, but it was entirely worth it.  It's the stuff memories are made of.

I am taking a photo for every day of December...and I am trying to scrap them for the Holidays in Hand class I mentioned earlier.  This is the layout for the third day.  Click on it to see it larger.

I won something!

The year Caleb was born, I bought two books with the most beautiful scrapbooking pages I had ever seen.  The author, Cathy Zielske, has design skills that create serious eye candy, and I have learned so much from those books.  While I really haven't done much scrapbooking since then (just one album and several random pages), I have used all that she teaches in lots of design work for the ministry.  And, it was her photos and photography tips that encouraged me to get my dslr.  I am a big fan.

So, tonight I made a comment on her blog for a giveaway she was doing for two free spots ($100 value) in her upcoming class, Design Your Life.  Out of almost 1000 people, I got one of those spots!!!!! I am so excited and cannot wait to learn more from her.   

What a sweet blessing!  I will be so glad to be a little better trained in this stuff...especially as designing printed materials for Cru has become a part of how I am serving the Lord now as a mom.

You can see her post here.

Christmas Card Grammar

It's that wonderful time of the year again, and a lot of us are working on our Christmas cards.  So, I wanted to pass along a grammar tip that I think many people don't know.  There is more info on this website as well as on this website.

When signing cards, it is grammatically correct to write "Love, the Peltons."
Is is grammatically incorrect to write "Love, the Pelton's." 

See the difference?  It's not possessive and doesn't need an apostrophe.  I notice it a lot when we get cards in the mail and thought it might be helpful to share.  Brandon reminded me that he had been doing this until we signed our first Christmas cards as a couple.  He had to see it on the internet before he believed me.  Seriously, what did we do before the internet?

I am kind of a nerd and really enjoy proofreading newsletters and such.  So, stuff like this just jumps off a page at me.  

This makes me happy...

The following little dialogue (written in Caleb's own language) took place just now as Brandon and Caleb were working on building a fire.  Caleb doesn't like being in the backyard by himself these days because he is afraid of the neighbor's cat.  So, Brandon had brought a load of firewood inside and left Caleb for a moment.  The little man followed soon after with a sad look on his face.  

Caleb:  "Daddy, you keep not staying with me."
Daddy:  "Oh, did I come inside without telling you?"
Caleb:  "Yeah, you walkeded away from me.  You got away from my love."
Daddy (smiling):  "I did, did I?"
Caleb:  "Yeah, I love you."
(and as they were on their way back outside...)
Caleb:   "You're my best friend." 

Caleb and I have this ongoing thing when I am affectionate to him and he wants to be playful.  He turns to me grinning and says, "I get away from your love." And, I say something like, "You can't get away from my love."  And then it goes on from there...something like The Runaway Bunny story by Margaret Wise Brown.  Until now, Daddy hasn't really been a part of it...so we both thought this was pretty funny....and random.

I really like these two.

Caleb's Eye Update

Yesterday, we had another eye appointment for Caleb.  We went in sure that Dr. Simmons was going to tell us that Caleb needed surgery to fix his eyes.  For more info about his intermittent exotropia, read this post.

We have seen Caleb's eyes improve...over all.  But, one day after we had forgotten a few days of patching, he was really tired and one of his eyes went so far out that I know he was seeing double.  He was crying and covering his eye, and I could do absolutely nothing about it.  It was heartbreaking.  Apart from that day, things have gotten better...but we have been pretty certain he would need surgery.

And it seems that for everyone we have talked to who has had the surgery (or knows someone who has), multiple surgeries have been required.  So, we really didn't want Caleb to have to have this surgery.  Although the crazy hard things our friends have been through lately have given us perspective, we have prayed that this step would not be necessary.

Yesterday, after the doctor examined him, he looked at us and said, "good news."  Caleb's eyes had improved considerably since the last visit.  He said he was "tickled" about it, and he wouldn't need surgery.  In fact, we don't even need to continue eye patching.  We will have a follow up in six months.  We are so grateful that God answered our prayers in this way.  Thank You, Lord!

The Lies We Believe

Every woman (and man) should see this. And how can a program such as Photoshop be so wonderful and despicable at the same time?

Tonight's Prayer

Me: "...and thank You for this little boy and his daddy..."

Caleb: "...and Mommy.  Thank You for Mommy.  She's cute."

Me: "What did you say, honey?"

Caleb: "You're cute.  And thank You for our friends...and for guitars...and my guitar...and drums. And, I play guitar.  And I pray for someone to play drums while I play guitar.  Amen."

"Hey babe!"

So, if I counted how many times those two words are shouted in our home, either by Brandon or me, it would be a surprisingly large number.  "Babe" is just what we call each other, and "Hey" is the word we use to get the other's attention.  What is the even more surprising number, however, is the amount of times we hear "Hey babe!" yelled from the mouth of our little boy.

Caleb, I think, has determined that it must be my name.  So, when calling "Mommy" doesn't work, he soon resorts to "Hey babe!"  I haven't yet stopped laughing enough to correct him.  If only you could hear how funny it is with his little voice.  It's just one of many things he does that entertain us.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse.  Last year, 7.6 million shoe boxes were collected and sent all over the world to children in need.  That means that 7.6 million children experienced the love of Jesus in the form of dolls, stuffed animals, coloring books, soap, toothpaste, cars, etc.

We are big fans of OCC, and this year has been even more fun.  Caleb is enjoying buying toys for "little kids who don't have toys." Stuffing shoe boxes is a great way for Caleb (and us) to learn to share what God has given us. Check out their website to find a location near you.

White Sands Balloon Fiesta

We love our hot air balloons down here!  A while back, Caleb and I braved the ridiculously early morning and headed out to White Sands National Monument.   We both thoroughly enjoyed all the colors floating over the endless white, especially when the sun decided to make an appearance.  What a beautiful place we call home...and what a wonderful God to create such wonders!

During the fiesta, it wasn't too long before Caleb was distracted with driving a little Matchbox car in the gypsum sand.  Unfortunately, the small toy got buried and lost forever.  The dunes are always shifting, so I don't think it will turn up anytime soon.  So much for "leave no trace."

Katie Pertiet Frames

Fight for Feuille

I realize that my blog has been full of prayer requests lately, but I fully believe in God's power to heal.  And, so I am asking you to ask God to heal another friend.  Robert Feuille was a student here at NMSU, then an intern here with Cru, and now a graphic designer/photographer in El Paso.  Lately, however, his full-time job has been fighting testicular cancer.

After a surgery in which part of his liver and many lymph nodes were removed, Robert and his wife Aimee got bad news tonight.  The surgery was a failure, and the doctors have given him a 10% chance with another round of chemo.  Robert and Aimee have two little girls and a baby boy, Egan, who was born just weeks ago.  Please, please pray for them.  You can read more about his fight here or here.

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."   Psalm 68:19

Arrrrghhh!!!

Caleb really has no idea what a pirate is, and he most definitely did not request to be one for Halloween. Our original plan was for him to be Peyton Manning of the Colts. He has a jersey that his Uncle Patrick and Aunt Hannah had bought him for Christmas, so we just needed a helmet and some padding. The helmet, however, proved to be more difficult to find.

So, because the little guy didn't care one way or the other...and Liz had just recently been sent this costume in a box of clothes for her kids...of course he had to be a pirate. We have heard countless pirate comments over the past few months so I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. So, I colored in his eye patch with magic marker. The result was the cutest little pirate ever! He loved dressing up and was even willing to pose for an incredibly long thirty seconds. While both visiting friends and at our church festival, he walked up to most everyone and said, "I'm a pirate."

Sorry, Peyton. You'll just have to wait until next year. Please try to stay undefeated.

Free Jessica Sprague Class

I love her classes. I got hooked through a free one she did this summer, and she is offering another free one in a few weeks. Registration is Monday. Check it out.

My classes have been taking up most of my internet time,
but I hope to start blogging again soon.

post-it: Gunhild Storeide.

Fun Homework

I am having a lot of fun with this class, and I have learned a lot. This summer, I finally figured out how to use the manual setting on my camera and get consistent results. During the course of the last few weeks, I have been practicing using the shutter speed priority and the aperture priority settings on my camera. I am really enjoying them...and it all seems to be clicking. Below are the first two weeks assignments:

The windmill was spinning in both photos. The top photo was shot with a higher shutter speed, making it appear stopped.



The poor quality of the photos is due to a save-for-web attempt I tried. Saves space, but I am not a fan of the quality. Learning as I go...

More Ellie Updates

Update 10.27.09
Ellie is home now! She did end up having a permanent shunt placed to allow for drainage of the fluid in her brain. Now, she is home and the Lively family is adjusting to a new life with many challenges ahead. Please keep praying for Peter and Alana as they take care of Ellie and Katie...and each other. Thanks so much!


Again, please pray for Ellie Lively. God has been good and has answered prayer. Please continue to pray for our friends.

From Peter tonight:

Hello friends and family,

Wanted to give everyone an update. We're still very thankful for the returned blood flow to the right side of her brain, but our emotions get tossed back and forth as it seems with every two steps forward there are one or two steps back.

Ellie's been having seizures with some regularity, including four seizures Tuesday night. They could be caused by brain damage leftover from her stroke or possibly her sodium levels. Ellie's sodium (salt) levels have been very inconsistent, mostly low if not very low. They're not sure why, speculating it could be because of brain injury, could be because her system's adjusted for all of the fluids being pumped into her, or maybe because of a thyroid issue, or maybe it's metabollical, or all of the above. They don't really know and are doing a lot of tests. If we don't get a good handle on it, Ellie will continue to have seizures, it could damage her brain further, and she could go into a coma. Sodium is very important for nerve conduction, and could severely limit her development, to say the least.

Ellie's been throwing up last night and this morning, which is another symptom of low sodium. Whenever her eyes are open she always has a kind of 'panicked' look on her face, and she doesn't track extremely well with her eyes (but at least she's opening her eyes). She doesn't have the breathing tube anymore, which is great, or as many arterial lines.

The fluid from her brain is still draining, and hopefully we'll see the last of the blood left over from the hemohrrage out of her brain. The hope is that her head will be able to naturally absorb fluids so that she won't continue to have abnormal pressure placed on her brain. If this doesn't happen then a permanent drain or shunt will have to placed in her head, which will make her very prone to infections, could further hurt her brain development, and may not succeed in it's purpose anyway (though, we have many of the best pediatric surgeons here that should really help improve probable success).

We can't thank everyone enough for praying for us. We've sensed God's presence and voice with us through all of this. Two days ago I was having a difficult emotional time and was trying to read some psalms to Ellie, while wondering where God was. Some nurses came in and after they left I felt like I 'should' read another psalm to Ellie, but I didn't want to. I didn't feel like it. Right then I sensed that God said, "That's ok, you don't have to." Such understanding! I broke down, experiencing the reality of a God who 'sees' people in their distress, like the passage about Hagar in Genesis 16. I felt assurance that God is seeing us while we're in this nightmare, that He cares and He's 'seeing' us through it. After this I wanted to read a psalm to Ellie.

We don't know where all of this will lead, but God is still good. Please continue to pray for us. The prayers are being heard. Sometime early next week the neuro-surgeons will order another CT scan and evaluate how her brain is doing, probably determine if she needs the permanent shunt. Please pray that she won't need it, that her sodium will come under control, that her brain will continue to be heal, and that someday she'll be able to run around with her sister.

With love,

Peter and Alana


From Peter on Monday:

Hello everyone,

As many of you have heard, Alana and I received some great news about Ellie today. If you'll remember, the doctors had told us the aneurysm had disrupted the blood flow in her right cerebral artery, blood that was supposed to be completely stopped by the coil embolism Dr. Kumpe inserted. This stoppage of the blood flow would continue to severely damage the right side of her brain, basically causing it to die. This loss would greatly decrease if not paralyze her ability to move the left side of her body.

Well, we got back the results from an MRI taken Friday and the results were shocking. Ellie has blood flowing in those arteries! The doctors were very surprised. They had been speaking about the right side of her brain becoming necrotic as a past and finished event. However, Ellie has been moving her left arm and leg consistently (albeit, with less strength than the right) and it was never understood exactly how until now. Somehow, through something called collateral blood flow, blood has gone around the aneurysm and the coils, somehow, and found it's way to the affected arteries.

This is almost too incredible for Alana and I to believe. We had come to accept that those arteries and the associated brain tissue were a lost cause. We've been wrestling with this 'fact', wondering what kind of life Ellie would have should she survive all of this. We were glad she was alive but sad for the horrible damage done to her brain. Now, it seems, God had other ideas.

She still needs much prayer for continued restoration of her brain. Also, they've inserted a drain in her head to relieve the fluid build-up, especially the blood from the aneurysm burst. They gave her a powerful blood thinner to break up the blood clots left over from the hemorrhage. The thinner is so powerful they almost never give it to children as they're not sure what it does to them. But it was determined that the pressure in her brain was becoming too great.

Please pray that the drain will do its job, that all of the blood from the aneurysm would leave her brain, and that her brain's natural fluid equilibrium would be restored. This way, she won't need a permanent drain placed in her skull which would bring with it a whole other set of problems..

Again, thank you so much for praying for us and our little daughter. I don't think this would have happened without the sort of prayer covering we've enjoyed. God would have been good regardless of the new MRI's revelations, but we're so thankful that He answered our prayers with a miracle today. Incredible! It is so thrilling to get good news.

As always, we or others in the know will keep you posted as news comes. God bless you!

Humbled,

Peter and Alana Lively

Oh Shoot: Beginning Digital Photography

For my birthday, Brandon gave me some money to take an online photography class, taught by Candice Stringham. She is a photographer I have admired for a while...and she is a really great teacher. It is on jessicasprague.com. I took a free class from Jessica in July, and I am hooked. They are so helpful, and I am learning a lot. The picture I took above was one of the first times I have used Shutter Speed Priority Mode...because the light was low and the strong winds were making a sharp shot almost impossible. Such a helpful class! Check the site out.

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Our baby is three! I tend to round up when people ask how old he is (I do this with myself too), and so I have actually thought he was three for about four months now. When people have asked him how old he was, his response was "I turn 'tember." As in, "I turn three in September." This past Monday marked the day God blessed us with this incredible little person in our family. And we had lots of fun celebrating his little life.

My family growing up always had a tradition of breakfast in bed on birthdays and mother's/father's days. We continue that in our family, and Brandon made Caleb this adorable pancake mouse. My husband is amazing.



He loved eating in his bed.

He wanted a choo-choo train party, which was a bit more complicated than the baseball party he had originally asked for. But, I found this Wilton Puzzle Cake and it turned out better than expected. Many good friends came over to help us celebrate, and we all had a good time. Caleb did, at one point, become a little overwhelmed by the attention and said, "I don wanna go to my birfday." Apart from that moment, he had a wonderful birthday.



One unexpected blessing happened a few weeks before. At a garage sale, I found a Thomas the Train wooden train set complete with several buildings and numerous trains for $20!!! This set is something we have been eying for a long time, but I wasn't about to spend the money it would require to begin the collection. I think this set would cost $300 new. He has not stopped playing it since he found it all set up in his room on Monday morning.

Note to self: Next time, ask someone to take pictures for you. You will be too busy. :-)