wicket awesome

jacob and i are both nerds. there is no doubt about that.

we are star wards nerds too. i asked for the new release trilogy for my 17th birthday in 1998. his college nickname was wookiee. nerds, yeah. we even have a star wars room in our house.


the great debate  is if episode 5 or 6 is better. his favorite is empire strikes back and mine has always, always been return of the jedi.

it’s my favorite because of the ewoks. they are funny and furry and cute – and they save the day! i had a pink ewoks nightgown when i was a little girl. 

now i have an ewoks apron! isn’t it awesome? that’s wicket, the leader of the ewoks, there to the right.


a girl i went to college with sells them in her etsy shop, razorBloom. she has all kinds of great blasts from the past kind of aprons. go check her out here.

if you buy something from her, maybe she will send a cute note to you too!

now, i’m off to bake with luke, leia, and han on my hip!

p.s. do you like my $4.98 converse? I heart target!

**********************************************************
jacob returns this friday.


photos are being gangked from the corporate blog (does that count as crediting the source?)


i can’t get enough of this man.

******edited: i would like to show you pictures of more than just jacob, but i do not want to overstep my bounds of “gangking”. maybe when he gets back we can show the patients. ***********

he’s amazing

he had a long day
the longest day since they have been in Haiti
but he stayed up late
to talk to me
we talked for an hour tonight
i cried a lot
and laughed a lot.

he kept telling me about the times in the day he wished i was there to see what he was seeing.

he’s amazing. he really is.

the witch

all of this winter weather we have experienced over the last week has been beautiful in its own respect.

icy weather is not my friend though.


it’s so pretty but it has me turning into a witch.

icy. cold. mean. and ready to devour children.

they have been CRAZY this week. and i am ready to shove them back into a giant wardrobe and let them escape to another world. maybe haiti. then they would appreciate what they do have and would make the most of school. plus, it would be warmer there.

shoot, maybe i’ll just crawl in the wardrobe and disappear.

you get my point. i’m grumpy and have spring fever.

one potato, two potato, three potato, four

*******update from Haiti below*******

So, I tried to make sweet potato fries because we love them. We always get the frozen ones but I had a hankerin’ to make some fresh ones.

It was somewhat of a fail. Luckily, my brother popped in just in to time to deem them “sweet potato hashbrowns.” It works for me.

Easy-peasy but don’t expect the fried, crispier version.

rinse, peel, cut
  
cut
cut
cut

put in a gallon bag with 1T of olive oil, some sea salt, and Mrs. Dash and toss a bit

arrange on a baking sheet and cook at 400
get annoyed that they are so mooshy
take from over and brown in a skillet


enjoy with flank steak and brussel sprouts

**********************************************************
update received from Haiti correspondent today

Le Bonheur's team began treating patients this morning at the clinic in Croix-des-Bouquets. As word spread that a group of pediatric experts was ready and waiting to see patients, a steady stream of people began arriving at the clinic. By 9 a.m. this morning CST, more than 100 patients were waiting at the clinic to see our specialists. Our physicians had already treated one child with a wounded arm as soon as the clinic doors were open, and the team has recruited about five local students to help check patients in and keep things running smoothly. Our doctors anticipate treating many children today and will update us early this afternoon with a full report. Stay tuned!

Good stuff, huh? I was able to talk to jacob tonight and he gave me this information in more detail. There was a lady who was cooking with hot grease when the earthquake struck. She had severe grease burns and they had not been treated yet. bad stuff, but she will be good now.

missed

Dear jacob,

I missed you in worship this morning.
I missed the voice God blessed you with singing His praises.
I missed your arm around me.
I missed you reaching for my hand during the closing prayer.

You missed a combined service and no Bible class.
You missed a loose piece of communion bread. :)
You missed ice chunks breaking off the steeple and tumbling down the roof during a prayer, of course.
You missed a very good lesson on how everything belongs to God.


37 hours down, 275 to go. I love you!

Candace

****For everyone else, I promise I’ll quit moping and write something actually worth looking at in the next few days.

he’s off

**** update: The plane landed safely in Haiti around 1:45pm central time.

jacob just left the house but is not in the air yet.

his friend, Gordon, came to pick him up so I wouldn’t have to drive the icy roads. (Gordon is the man who invited jacob to go to Belize last year. He is a deacon at Park Ave church of Christ and works at LeBonheur as a CRNA.)

i tried not to cry. then jacob pulled me in real close and tight and well…….you know how that goes.

our house is disgusting, so i have plenty to keep my mind from worrying. it smells like sausage and french toast too.

the team should be in Haiti by this afternoon.

thanks for reading and praying!

leaving for Haiti

so plans have changed a little and been up in the air for most of this week.

Jacob and the team leave tomorrow morning from Memphis. They are traveling on a Fedex jet, so they will be able to leave the area despite the inclement weather and delays of other flights.

Over 40,000 lbs of supplies are already on the way and will arrive Sunday. FedEx has been very instrumental in this whole process.

Here is a picture of the team and a list of names. Please pray for them and their patients.

• Dr. Sunny Anand, Le Bonheur director of Critical Care
• Dr. Gordon Kraus, internal medicine, Haiti Medical Missions of Memphis
• Dr. Derek Kelly, pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Campbell Clinic
• Dr. Josh Meier, pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Kosair Children’s Hospital, Louisville, KY; Children’s Orthopedics of Louisville
• Dr. Trey Eubanks, pediatric surgeon, medical director of Trauma, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center; Pediatric Surgical Group
• Dr. Joel Saltzman, medical director of Anesthesia, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center Pediatric Anesthesiologists PA
• Gordon Corder, certified registered nurse anesthetist, Pediatric Anesthesiologists PA
• Jacob Howell (<I love him!), surgery technician, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center

Umm, yeah, that’s my husband. I’m just a little proud of him.

I will be posting updates on here as well as Facebook.

do you have a heart?

jacob was on call the other night and had to go back in to the hospital at 4:30 in the morning. he knew he would probably get called around that time.

you see they were performing a harvest on a teenager who had died earlier in the day from a tragic accident. 
 
a harvest? yes, they had to harvest all of the child’s organs because his or her parents decided to donate them.

i laid awake for at least an hour thinking about that child’s family and the bad that happened to them, BUT on the same token thinking of all the good that will come from that bad.

amazing! 


are you signed up to be an organ donor? here in our state, you are identified as a registered organ donor by a heart on your driver’s license picture.

so, do you have a heart?

will your children have a heart?

i for real want to know, so leave a comment.

my space in cyberspace

I thought this was interesting. Myspace was my first experience in “blogging.” The last comment on my page is dated October 17, 2007. It was long before that that I actually gave myspace any attention. Here is what I said about myself nearly 2 1/2 years ago. (yeah, i know - me, me, me)

About me:
I can be very outgoing yet can be extremely shy. I love to sing along with the radio or just sing randomly. Clouds are beautiful and absolutely amazing, I mean they are JUST water! Coffee makes my heart flutter, literally. Chocolate is the best medicine. I love meeting people and building relationships. I am beautiful and I love knowing that about myself! I am a sucker for butterflies in my stomach and stopping to smell the roses. I am loud and often explode with laughter! I am far from where I need to be in life but exactly where I belong......

Who I'd like to meet:
C.S. Lewis, Dr. Seuss, and my mom at my age.

Candace's Interests General:
God and His Word, teaching and learning, CLOUDS, the Village of Hope, finding life in the little things, the people around me, details, small-world occurances, that sense of accomplishment that comes with a good run, traveling alone - anywhere, discovering new places, finding something in the Bible that had been forgotten or never before found, smiling at strangers and having them smile back, doing a good job, crashing at the end of a full day, having a Saturday to sleep in.....

Nowadays:
1. Not as much singing these days, I get too lost in my thoughts.
2. There’s not so much running…..honestly, almost none at all.
3. Switching to half-caff coffee alleviates heart palpitations.
4. Saturday mornings are for coffee on the couch, time with God, blogging, and cleaning in my pajamas. Not so much sleeping in.

The rest is pretty much the same. At least as far as this description goes. Life has changed a lot though.

Hmmm, I wonder what I will think when I read this post two years from now?

it just became more real

Jacob is leaving Tuesday for Haiti. He will be going with a surgical team from the children’s hospital where he works . He will be doing what he does best.

 
I am excited for him.

I am nervous for him.

I love him.

God is in control and HE will be glorified!