My friend Laura over at http://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/ has Gratituesday every week. This is the first time I am joining in!

Yesterday I took Garrison to the doctor and discovered he had a double ear infection. This is why I am extremely grateful for modern medicine! Garrison has been so unhappy and I just blamed it on the acid reflux. I try to imagine living 200 years ago when there was no pain medication or antibiotics. I think having to watch your baby suffer through ear infections without treating them would be horrible. Not to mention that many children probably lost their hearing if they suffered from chronic ear infections.

Now, I do believe there is something to be said for wholistic medicine and finding ways for natural healing, but if there is pain medication that can help a suffering child, I think it should be used.

And of course Garrison would not be alive if it wasn't for modern medicine. See pic here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPIsnNawY8SvciaBQCbEA1mEN7FG-qC5l5YQypn0noeop37mPzHQV7m8yxUHViYrgREwG_1FtmyA50X3xeOZxFc3egAYKetfuRKgRFcpRBe2ZGddNK72l8Nh2ZhMn1jwGGxTpS/s1600-h/Garrison+016.jpg

And yes, God is the Great Physician, but I am grateful that he gives people the ability to use their minds and hands to heal others.

And as for Garrison, I think he is pretty grateful too :)

Just decorating for Christmas...

I lost my grandpa on November 28th, 2008. You may remember me mentioning him here on the July 10th post:
http://fischerbowl.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

Here are the words that I read at his funeral(I'm not sure anyone understood what I was saying, since I sobbed through the whole thing.)

Grandpa,

Thank you for the countless memories forever etched into my heart and mind.
Memories that are precious to me and to everyone here.

You were a grandpa who loved to play with us. You spent hours on the floor playing Pente with me. You would take us to DeSoto to play shuffleboard and mini golf. And who could forget the rides in the golf cart, crystal mining, the rock shop, and fishing. The list could go on and on.

I love the little snapshots of you that are so vivid in my mind now.

Like the image of you hurriedly walking around the house in Hot Spring Village, whispering under your breath, looking for your next project.

Or the image of you quietly reading the paper and drinking your morning coffee.

Or the image of you driving on the shoulder on the way home from church on a Wednesday night, while in fear my mom and I held hands in the back seat.

Or the image of you shuffling everyone together so you could take a picture.
Thank you for all of the pictures that you took...and for the slideshows!
When I was a kid, I LOVED the slideshows. I am so thankful for the slideshow that we had with you a few years ago.

But most of all grandpa, you were a kind and gentle spirit. The type of person God calls us to be in Colossians 3:12 where it says,
"Therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."


My grandpa's funeral was beautiful. The hardest part for me was when they closed the casket door. They slowly lower the door, and you know that you will never see your grandpa in the flesh again.

I've only been to a handful of funerals in my 31 years. The one thing I can say about all of them is that no one had to lie or pretend about the character of the person we were remembering.

I've never heard anyone declare this at a funeral..."Well, he was a bitter, mean, hateful old thing." Ok, that was extreme, but you get the idea. The usual comments involve love, kindness and the generousity of the person. It really made me think about my own funeral...do I want people to be able to speak truthfully about the kind of person I was, or will they have to pretend?

Live everyday like it's your last...no, I say make every day count, because one day it will be your past.

Here are some precious pictures of my grandpa and Fischer at their joint 1st and 84th birthday parties.