A House Rule

One of our rules for inside our house is No Running. Four children running in the house sounds like a herd of elephants coming. That is words my dad used and there was only 2 girls in our family. The house we are moving out of is built on a cement slab. So the children has gotten away with a lot of running because we can not hear it. At the new house, with it mostly sitting empty and wooden floors, it is very loud. We have some work to do on retraining our children.

R

Our New Abode

We are moving on Sat. into this little mission house our church has. They have been after us for a few months to move into it. We had a 9th month lease we didn't want to break. We haven't been missionaries yet. Steve has a good paying job. We are leaving soon. All reasons not to move. Since my medical clearance keeps getting pushed back, we decided to move. At the moment we will not be leaving for Richmond, VA and orientation until the end of March now.

The house has been lived in some and used as storage for the last 3 years. I have spent the last three weeks cleaning a little bit everyday. I am not up to par as I have been off of my thyroid medicine for 3 1/2 weeks now. This is to get ready for my radio active iodine therapy. Back to house. We also painted the living room and 2 bedrooms. More could be painted but we are moving in. We have taken this house on as one of our mission projects. The churches goal is for it to be ready for missionary families that have come home on fur low. They would only come home with clothes and would need it to completely furnished.

Rita for the Schwarz'

The Appalachian Mountains on the 4th

We spent the 4th of July (Thurs. - Sat.) in Ellijay, Georgia which is at the bottom end of the Appalachian Mountains. The start of the Appalachian Trail is not too far away from there. We stayed in this lovely house, which belongs to Steve's cousin Rebecca and her family. Steve's uncle Bill built the house. Now his Aunt and Uncle live in the little addition off to the side. We as a family had lots of fun. We went fishing (first picture Seth is holding a fish), rode 4 wheelers, played badmitton.

It is sad that we have lived here in South Carolina for 9 1/2 years and only 4 hours away is family of Steve's. We had fun getting reaquainted (Steve) and learning to know this family for the first time (the rest of us). They have a little boy Lane's age and an 18 month old little girl.

Rebecca: if you are reading this thanks for a wonderful time!

Another Medical Update

On June 18th I saw Dr. Sandrin, my Endocrinologist. She was very knowledgeable and answered our many questions. I had been on an no iodine diet for two weeks and off my thyroid medicine for three weeks getting ready for the radioactive Iodine therapy and scans she would need to be doing. She wanted to know who ordered the scans. We had to explain to her that my surgeon was just helping us move the process along faster. So we left her office thinking that on June 30th I would be taking the radio active iodine.

Later, that day she called to say we cannot do it yet. Dr. Nelson had ordered a CT with contrast. That contrast is loaded with iodine. So now I cannot do the radio active iodine and the scans until the week of August 18th. So I am back on my medicine for three more weeks, before I have to go off of it again.

This pushes our schedule back again. She will not give me medical clearance until six weeks after all this is done. So, if the IMB board approves us to be missionaries, we wouldn't get to go to Richmond for training until April now instead of Jan. Our constultant with IMB, Mr. Dan Panter, called yesterday to say that he has been updated on our file and everything will just be on hold. As soon as I have medical clearance he will make is so that our file will go before the very next meeting of the board.

Rita

My Baby Baby Turned 7 on June 7th

The first picture is Seth on his birthday. He is now 7 years old. The second picture I think is on his 2nd birthday. I know I have him in this chair when he was a baby, but I didn't want to go digging through boxes in the garage again. He is getting so big, so fast!! :( I want him to grow and yet I want him to stay my baby. He still loves to snuggle with mama. :)

Medical Update

I went to my surgeon Dr. McLeod for my six week follow-up. He wanted to know what Dr. Nelson was doing. He is the oncologist. Dr. Nelson had me get CT scans of my neck and chest and referred me to Dr. Sandrin an Endocrinolist. At first I couldn't get an appointment until Aug. 25th. The receptionist making the appointment told me to call Dr. Nelson's office and explain what is going on. Sometimes Doctors talk and appointments get moved up. I now have an appointment for June 18th.

Dr. McLeod the surgeon wasn't sure why I was referred onto someone else. I was wondering why I even saw Dr. Nelson. Anyways, Dr. McLeod told me to stop taking my medicine and is getting me the info I need for a diet that I need to follow for about three weeks. Most likely the Endocrinolist will want to do a scan and I need to be off my medicine and on this diet for three weeks. So Dr. McLeod is helping speed up the process. So by the time June 18th comes around I will be ready for the next step and hopefully will not have to wait three more weeks.

Rita

Memorial Day / Falls Park on the Reedy

Finally, we walked back the two blocks to this park. The bridge is the only one of its kind in the US. I (Rita) didn't like standing still on it - it moved too much. There is paths to walk, gardens to see, and it you want to you can wade / swim in the river. Steve and I didn't think a river running through a city could be that clean to go wading and swimming it, but there were a lot of people doing it. It was a warm day.