Litte Things

 Little things... during these times little things are such a helpful boost to my soul.

My new fall wreath was delivered. It was time to update our fall wreath. This brought a smile. :) 

A little chocolate always gives me a smile!

A beautiful much needed rain! 

 A new book from London signed by the author! :) Perfect for these days when I have a little moment. I just read a little daily.

A yummy simple grill cheese with salt & vinegar chips. Our current fancy dinnerware (ahem... paper plate) has been a little thing that has been a big help during this time of life. 

Seeing my husband get out of bed and finally feel a little better to eat a little lunch with me is a big thing which may seem little to most was such a blessing. 

I hope you all are having a lovely week. Embrace and appreciate the little things in life. Sometimes those little things seem like a lovely grand thing in reality.

With Love, 

Chrissy

Life Update

Hello friends. I wanted to pop in and update this sweet space and my friends if any of you are still visiting. Derrick's surgery was more complicated than we thought. What was supposed to be a 3–4-hour surgery was 6 hours followed by an hour of recovery and almost a week stay in the hospital due not being able to get his pain under control or strength. He had some cardiac issues during recovery right after surgery so lots of monitoring needed to be done. All that has somewhat leveled out thankfully as of now. 

Derrick needs full-time care at the moment on the most part. But daily he is getting better. I have been caring for him around the clock. It has been super hard, but I would have it no other way. I am typing this and still in shock what curve ball we were thrown three weeks ago to the day. I am trying to be brave. I am trying to hold it all together but there are moments I just want to cry and cry. So, I do. After I ugly cry.... I clean up, lean on Jesus, and move forward. There is no other way really.

I hope to make my rounds to visit you all one day. I am so sorry for my lack of visiting and posting. It just really isn't possible much. 

So, where do we go through from here? Well, he had the surgery for removal of tumor and lymph nodes. We meet the surgeon to follow up next week and then on the 28th the oncologist to discuss next steps. Continued prayers are appreciated. 

I hope to pop in a little more now that I am home and getting a "new" rhythm to my days.

With Love, 

Chrissy T

PRAISE REPORT & UPDATE on My Husband

 

Hello everyone. First, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone that has prayed, sent encouraging emails, and thoughts towards our family at this time. It means so much. This space and all of you lovely people have a special place in my life. I truly miss visiting you all and posting here. I hope to be back to a little more regularly when time allows.

MOST IMPORTANT thing is.... THE LORD heard our prayers and Derrick did not have any spread of cancer to other organs at this time. PRAISE THE LORD. The cancer is in the colon for what can be seen by the scan. They could not see how much pass the tumor and they can't tell if the lymph nodes or how much is in the colon until after surgery. 

He is having surgery THIS TUESDAY to have the mass removed and parts of the colon as well as lymph nodes in the area. He will be in the hospital for a little while following that. After a week or so we will know about treatment such as chemotherapy. As of now we are told they suspect it is stage 3 but until they get inside the colon, they cannot confirm 100%.  Also, due to the tumor being so large and blocking most of the middle and upper colon they cannot know until after he recovers and does another colonoscopy what other issues remain. Our hope is NOTHING.

So, I am going to post today this update and probably do a Monday post because I so miss you all. Monday may be about my summer reads and my fall reads that I hope to get to, then it may be a bit quiet here unless I do a quick update on things due to helping him after surgery and being at the hospital for a while. 

If you would have told me that I would be caring for my husband in this way 10 weeks after my own surgery I would have never believed you. The Lord is giving me strength, but I am truly exhausted and could use some prayers. I am being very transparent that today has been a very emotional day. I am so thankful with every inch of my being the cancer had not spread anywhere else. I am so trying not to worry about his surgery it will be up to 4 hours long. I also know a TAD of what to expect as far as recovery in the abdominal area so I feel so bad for him because his will be a more complicated and being that my surgery is so fresh in my mind it makes me hurt in my heart for him. He is not a person that sits down or does well with being "down." This will be a real challenge for him. 

We have had to arrange so much for the church and for his job. This is definitely a hard season, but we will press on! 

Blessings, 

Chrissy

Urgent Prayer Request & Photo Challenge Update

If you haven’t read my last post you may want to pop by and read. 

I have an urgent request… please pray for my husband (Derrick) today. He has a full body scan to see if the cancer has spread TODAY at 11:30. If you could pray that it has not spread!!! 

Thank you all! 

Under the circumstances… I cannot commit to the September daily photo challenge. I hope you all understand. I may try to do a week of challenges later this month. We have appointments all week. Today the scan, tomorrow his oncologist appointment, Thursday his surgeon appointment. It’s just not good timing for a photo challenge. Everything is moving fast to get him care and I’m thankful for that.

Love,

Chrissy 

The Word No One Wants to Hear...

Hello everyone. My last post was Monday and that was only two days ago yet feels like a week ago at the same time. I wrote on seasons and the strange one I was in. Little did I know that "Little Note" post I wrote to you would make a little more sense why I have been feeling I didn't need to rush into anything again. The Lord always leads if we will be still and listen. To fully understand that post please read this past Monday's post if you would like.

Monday when I wrote that post my husband was preparing for a procedure for preventive screening. Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5 am to head to the medical plaza. We were laughing, make light of this "uncomfortable" procedure and the only reason I went to was because I had to drive him home afterwards. 

The medical staff was so friendly. The doctor and anesthesia doctor came in and went over everything. The procedure is one most dread, so the staff made him super comfortable and keep it jovial and lighthearted. We laughed and cracked some silly jokes with them and each other. We took a silly picture of him to send to the kids, and he rolled out of the room. I went to a waiting area and wasn't even in the waiting room but a few minutes and was told to come back. I was thinking that was quite fast.  He was in recovery and waking up slowly. He said he was hungry and I giggled. He was ready to eat. He had not eaten since Sunday at 6 pm. 

As he was waking up from sedation, he was silly and we were laughing a little. The doctor walks in and had the look like you knew something was wrong. What was meant to be a preventive health screen revealed my husband has a large tumor in his colon and it is cancer. He could not even complete the colonoscopy because it was so large. He had to stop the procedure. We sat there in shock. The doctor was in shock. The nurse came in with a tissue box and then information came out of his mouth like a fire hydrant had been opened and we were rolled out to the car and sat in the car weeping and in shock. 

I am asking if you pray, please lift up my husband and our family. To say that this has been a challenging year ALREADY is an understatement. 

Derrick has a long road ahead, the doctor has stated. They believe this tumor to be 5-10 years old and that it is very important this had not spread to other areas for the best case scenario. 

My husband has had no signs other than some change of bowels this year and some cramping. He thought it was age, IBS or poor diet. His bloodwork has been fine over the years. He has no medical history. He is on no medications. NO high bp, cholesterol or anything. Always had a clean bill of health as we know. He is also only 46. So, the doctor is very taken back and concerned. He has been very tired more this year than normal and mentioned he felt he needed to exercise more or cut some stress out. These are actually some mild signs of colon cancer, but they match normal aging things too making it easy to ignore.

With this said he goes THIS Tuesday to get a full body scan. Would you pray that this is contained and has not spread and that we have the best case scenario. A miracle!!! 

Thank you

Chrissy T

A Little Note

Hello dear friends,

It has been a few days (a week or so) since I have popped in. I am sorry to admit I haven't visited many of you dear friends either. I do pray that I can soon. I am in a strange place in my life at the moment and I am trying to learn, grow, and gently accept once again a SHIFT in my SEASON of LIFE. 

I often feel that my seasons change as soon as I get used to one. I often fall back to the title of my blog. One Season to the Next! I know there is a reason the Lord put that on my heart to name my blog years ago as I seem to always flow from one "season" to the next often. :) 

Seasons of life are really fickle, aren't they?  I mean as soon as you feel you have it all together the rug is pulled and we are heading a different direction. This is life, I suppose. I know one thing it keeps it interesting. That is how I am choosing to look at it. :)

To fill you in, as mentioned a few posts back I needed a little "breakaroo" from blogging. I had faithfully written a post daily almost all of May, June, and July. I love blogging. I love visiting you all and I love posting, writing, and sharing my life. It is like writing a letter to good friends and hoping everyone reads the letter. :) I love visiting you all too. I feel like it is reading a letter you are writing to me. Your recipes, reading about your days, seeing your pictures and family moments are so special. I love the blogging community. I am glad to just be posting as I feel led to at this time.

I am so blessed by you all. Thank you all for your sweet congratulations for our daughter's engagement. It was wonderful. The pictures I am sharing are from our quick weekend trip to the beach for her SURPRISE PURPOSAL. It was HOT! VERY! We did have a nice time. I will be honest I am still dealing with pretty strong fatigue. I am entering week 9 of recovery after my hysterectomy and I am surprised at the fatigue and discomfort I do have occasionally still. 

I kind of pushed myself (which I know you all encouraged me not to) and it set me back a little bit. I really tried to pace myself, but even with light exercise and trying to do basic normal things my body just was not handling as I thought and truly is still not ready for "normal" life. 

In other news, there has been a lot of resting, catching up with some friends, reading, doing the basic homemaking duties and church. I am still not serving in full capacity at church yet. If you do not know I am a pastor's wife to a growing church plant. This season has been good for me to step back and with a bird's eye view and prayer evaluate my return of taking on ministry obligations. As a church planter you often have to serve in MANY "roles." It can become challenging as you are building and launching church growth.

In agreement with my husband and through prayer we have decided that I will not return to serving in some of the MANY areas that I was serving in. All of it had really begun to be too much and was not serving our home, family or even my health well. 

I am thankful but also it feels very strange and is very hard for me to let go of certain areas. I also know it is what must be done. I am learning to trust more in the Lord and remember He is in control. He can take care of these areas, and He will fill these roles. 

Moving on from that topic..... I am looking forward to the Fall. The heat has been brutal here. The last few days have been 105-108. It is so hot. My plants are all super crunchy no matter the watering. I am ready to take cooler walks, maybe a short simple hike (maybe) and I am ready to bake some yummy fall treats. 

Until then, I must embrace the heat and make the most of these "dog days" that are left. Seasons come and go. I will try to be content in this one. :)

Love you all, 

Chrissy T

A Special Moment ~ Engagement of Our Daughter

 This past weekend we traveled to Alabama Gulf Coast to surprise our daughter Hannah for her SURPRISE ENGAGEMENT her boyfriend of two years planned. She thought she was joining their family vacation and that his mom and dad were getting their vows renewed (that was the "story") so Clayton (her bf) could pull all this off. 

We are excited for this special moment and next step for Hannah and Clayton as they were engaged at Sunset on Saturday, August 15th, 2026.

They are praying and thinking about wedding dates for now, but we are excited for this step for them both. 

I hope you all are doing well! 

With Love,

Chrissy