Merry Christmas

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

This Christmas has been really a weird one for me. I was expecting to be back in the hospital, but it hasn’t happened yet. It doesn’t feel like Christmas this year at all for me. We have watched a bunch of Christmas movies that should put you in the Christmas spirit. One thing that I enjoy, or has been one of my Christmas traditions is to go to the crowded malls when you don’t have any thing to buy and people watch. Like window shopping except you watch the crazy people and I am reminded how empty life is without Christ. And He is the reason we celebrate the season! The Hope of the world!

"The Nativity" movie

This year I haven't had the strength to get out. My mom has been out and about making several trips to the store. Coming back reporting how crazy it is out there and cold. So in my weak state where I have problems just walking around the apartment. I have been glad to miss a lot of the holiday hussull-and-bussull. I consider this year to be the year of quarantine, I don’t want to catch the bugs that are going around right now, so I can be eligible for transplant they won’t transplant me if I get the flu. We have been really careful who comes around or where I go, and then give it all up to God because he is the only one really able to control any part of my health and surgery.

But one thing my mom and I got to do today was find enough strength to go to the theater and see the "The Nativity" movie. They did a really good job on the movie. I highly recommend it. It always concerns me when “hollywood” tells a story how they have to add, or change the movie to to fit there view. But one thing they did a good job on accurately retelling the Biblical account, and the parts that were added didn’t change the story but were in the relm of possibilty, they kept with the history and culture of the time. The only thing I feel that could have been done a little better
Luke 2:8-15
“8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.””

They didn’t fill the sky with the heavenly host singing Glory to God!. I guess I will have to wait till I get to heaven to hear the heavenly host singing Glory to God! And it will be better than anything man can make up or digitally manipulate.

For me and my mom It was good to get out and it wasn’t like a waste of time, either. I have been wanting to make it to either Church saturday night or a Christmas eve service but it hasn’t happened. So like some start up churches that meet in a movie theater for service, we went to a theater on Christmas eve and heard and saw the Christmas message.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.

The dreaded Christmas card mailing

This week I have spent quite a bit of time working with my mom to send out her Christmas card and letter. It once again reminds me of why I don’t like the Post Offices to much trouble. Email is a lot easier. And the Blog is even better, one post can be viewed by a bunch of people. Even the ones that you would accidentally forget or don’t know their address.

Something to think about

When Trials come they will either strengthen or weaken your faith.

Happy Birthday Micah!

Well, I am now another year older, and 20 lbs lighter So does that make this a good thing or a bad thing? But unfortunately this year I and far more weaker, and sicker then I was last time. Last year, being a busy time for people I got to go out with a lot of my friends spread out over a week and eat at several different resturants and be sung too many times and got to share "birthday" dessert with lots of friends! This year is a lot closer to home and not seeing as many people, trying to stay as healthy as possible and trying not to spend all my energy in one place. This year I get to spend it with my Mom, first time in maybe 6 years.

Year 27 death of the old Micah, does that mean Year 28 will be the birth of the new and improved healthy Micah? Oh I sure hope so!

But I know: Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
and also: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

So no matter what happens this next year I know that God is still on the thrown and providing for my every need. So this year will be another great year no matter how scary or what the roller-coaster ride looks like now. With God’s help I am going to climb a mountain this coming year!

Yeah Birthday parties

My mom wanted to give me a birthday party since she hasn’t been able to in so many years. I don’t make a big deal out of party’s or anything. She was planning if we were in the hospital will do ___“this“___ or if we are at home will do ___”That“___. And then there is the famous question what do you want for your birthday. I responded, I want to hang out with friends! I would love be able to get together with all my friends but my energy would never keep up and I would have worn myself completely out and probably ended up sick and back in the hospital. And my apartment would never hold a huge room of friends.

So we had a few people over played some games laughed and I got to find out what was happening in the real world. I am so thankful I was able to have enough energy to have a few friends come over and celebrate my birthday with me. It was a lot of fun and a change from my normal routine. I was worried cause a few hour before I wasn’t feeling top notch and slept most of the day. But with Gods strength we made it!

Christmas lights

I have always liked looking at christmas lights. So one of my favorite things in the winter is to drive around and find houses that people go overboard lighting. In Portland, there was a street “Peacock Lane” where every house decorated I think some houses even competed with each other to have more lights, some house did just enough to get by. It was a fun memory I had with my Dad, and Mom. Ooh, Aww, Wow, Cool. It is the same sort of thing as fireworks.

So when we went out, I had my mom drive to Thanksgiving Point. I haven’t ridden in a car that far for quite a while. I was very tired by the time we got back but it was something different so that was good!

Thanksgiving Point Holiday lights let you drive through, it costs 7 dollars per car. Which some may say is not worth it but for me in my present condition. It was fun and I got to take pictures (more fun for me). Unfortunately a bunch of them didn’t turn out. I am still learning new ways to take pictures on with different settings.

Here are some of the ones that have turned out ok.








I wish I could have taken more time setup on a tripod with my cable release so that the slightest camera shake wouldn't make streaks with the lights. But oh well, it just proves that the laws of photography still apply to digital cameras to. "Out of a roll of 24 picts to have 3 or 4 pictures turn out that is a good shoot." So for me, out of 27 pictures I took too have 7 turn out is a great photo shoot. I have to remind myself that not every picture I take can be a good one.

Yeah work!

Well I am no where near being healthy enough to go back to work regularly. But I do like having the freedom from the hospital that I can go in for a few hours work on some projects get exhausted leave go home and rest!

Yesterday afternoon I was able to find enough strength inside, or maybe it was more curiosity that I went in to the TV station and worked with Denny on getting a new box configured, so we can put callers on the air and control the volume levels. We didn’t get it done enough to put it live on the air for last nights program :-( but we made a lot of progress towards that goal. Their are so many variables and each one has to be just right or the the thing doesn’t work or sound right. Hopefully in the coming week we can get just what we need to make it work flawlessly on the air!

So after about 3 hours I headed home to spend most of the night recovering. I am not looking forward to the coming surgery and all the pain again but I am looking forward to being healthy. And even more than that I am looking forward to Heaven!

2 Corinthians 4:8-5:11
Hebrews 12

The BEST is yet to come!!!

Another update...

II have gone back to a previous entry in november and added a picture of the various things I have been work on. You can go check out.
So what is up with Micah?

Missing people

It is an interesting place to be at in life. When I was in the hospital there are always coming by to “check on you” nurses, doctors, aids, staff. And with each time you have a chance to smile at them and say a few things here and there that add up to them seeing something different in me as a patient compared to others they may have visited moments before. Nurses often made the comment I am one of the sicker patients they have right now but in my room the lights are on windows open, they can see a smile (sorta if I haven’t just woken up) and others who could or would be better then me are in these dark rooms, and they are grumpy, bossy, angry, not very pleasant at all let alone try to spend any time with.

Little did I ever think that the hospital would be my mission field this year. At home I don’t have the same influence, God doesn’t have a line of strangers nocking at my door that I can share Jesus love with. But I can rest and recuperate here that I can’t get in the hospital.

So how can I be mad and upset that my “new” liver failed or that waiting for the next transplant is taking to long. God is taking care of me and using me for His purpose and His glory! Is there any were else I would rather be? No!

Philippians 4:19
“19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Tortoise and the Hare

We have all heard the Aesop's Fable Tortoise and the Hare

I have a thought on that. At the speed I go compared to the speed my mom goes she can walk laps around me. So when we race it isn’t really fare because I can’t keep up. But to even the field a little bit I can set the distance and declare where the finish line is (a few steps ahead of me) and not tell her that this is the finish till she has done her circle around me, and is behind me. It is all part of the fun and stupid games we play to fight off boredom and break up our many many hours of waiting for something to happen.

Nothing new to report

Well we made it through another weekend and I am not back in the hospital, because some stupid bug growing in me caused problems. Thank You Lord! But we haven’t reached the 1 week mark yet. There is still always the fact that something can change overnight. Or get called in saying a liver is ready.

Spent a lot of time the last view days getting our Christmas card printed and a few christmas presents ready to be sent out. This year my mom and I took a picture together in the hospital, I love digital photography. On my computer I was able to set it up and crop it just how I wanted it printed and had it in the right format to take it to Inkleys who was able to print it in a few hours. None of this wait 2-4 weeks for processing. We hope to have them addressed and ready to be sent by the end of the week. But that is probably wishful thinking.

We also had a TV show “24 Season 5” marathon. We watched all 24 episodes in 4 days. I can’t say we were totally glued to the TV that long I was doing a few other tasks like sleeping, eating, knitting, snacking, playing on the computer, grazing. The nice thing is between the 45 minute episodes, I had to get up and go to the bathroom and since I was up do a few laps around the apartment to keep the blood flowing and stretch and my reward was I could come sit back down and watch another episode because they all end leaving you hanging waiting for the next one, next week. But with them all on dvd you just have to hit play again for the next one, no weeks, or commercial interruptions :-)

So in the mean time we try to enjoy my freedom from the hospital bed. And wait for God to say jump!

Free again?

Well I have been discharged from the hospital again. Yeah! Now I can relax at home and I have a new set of 4 walls to stare at. And a wonderful recliner. And nobody to come wake me up in the middle of the night to make sure that I am still a live and didn’t die in my sleep. Well we will once again see how long I can stay out of the hospital this time. Any anyone want to make bets? Few days, a week, couple of weeks, a month?

How are you today?

I feel a lot like Utah weather it is always changing, you don’t like what it is doing outside wait ten minutes and it will change.

A lot of people ask me “how I am?”, doctors, nurses, e-mails, others come in through out the day and I have a very hard time answering them. Sometimes I just say yes I am here.

So I decided to write down my many possible answers.
I am:
- tired
- fine/pretty good
- have energy
- have no energy
- ready to go for a walk
- knees going to give out need to lay down
- stiff/sore in my back, pain level 4 or 5
- hungry
- belly is full and bloated
- feeling sick, going to throw up
- need to go to the bathroom
- exhausted need to sleep
- need to get up out of this bed
- wide awake
- sound asleep

and that is all within the last 1 hour. Now times that by 24 and you start to get a picture of my day.

So how do you answer the common question “How are you doing?”

Test of the new beta blogger

I am always one to try new things :-) So I finally got around to switching over to the new Beta version. hopefully enough bugs have been worked out that everything will work as expected

I am tired...

Yes I am tired of being sick and going up and down on this roller coaster ride. But I still have hope!

Isaiah 40:28-31 (ASV)
“28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

Or from the Message:
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts. He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind.

Proverbs 3:5, 6 (NIV)
“5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Romans 8:28
“28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Still here...

I am getting so sick of being in the hospital. And hospital food lost its excitement long time ago. The only way I am getting through this is on God strength my strength ran out long time ago. so until God provides the next miracle I continue to wait and sleep, and sleep.

I know it is long time over due and I haven't posted things to the blog for the entire month of November, So now I am getting caught up again. I had a bunch of postings in my head and in my journal program but I never hit the send button. So now I am caught up I think. So be sure and check out November in the archive if October was the last thing you read.