Karwoski Life

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…a little late, and a little early! We had a wonderful Christmas week! Naturally it flew by and the reality of WINTER is starting to sink in…but as usual, I will do my best to see the bright side! It sure was pretty to have lots of new snow for Christmas, and since my parents and Matt’s family from Michigan had already safely made it to Iowa, I welcomed the fresh blanket. Of course, it has since mostly been covered in ice and partially melted, so things are a real mess now…but it sure was pretty on Christmas! Mom and Dad arrived in town on the 23rd and we had some time in the afternoon at our place. It was so great to have them over and just spend time visiting and puttering around the house together. Dad helped me hang up some things, while Matt and Mom supervised, of course. We ordered pizza and relaxed. They were tired after the long trip though, and headed back to their hotel to crash, while we watched some football (what else is there this time

It’s been a pretty tough week here. Wednesday I attended the funeral of baby Graham…which is something I had hoped and prayed we wouldn’t have to do. While the odds were stacked against him from the beginning of his short life, we all prayed diligently for healing and health…but it just wasn’t to be. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child…especially after waiting so long for the blessing of one. I just can’t make heads or tails of it…none of us can. All we can do is lean on our faith and pray for comfort and peace. I pray that Scott and Julie will be washed in the peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit and know that their baby is safe and healthy in heaven. It’s hard to know what to say to try and comfort her…it’s hard to feel comfort myself and I am just a friendly bystander. The sadness I feel for Julie is profound. It caught me off guard…I just couldn’t fight the wave of grief that bubbled up and poured out when I got the news that he was gone. And sitting at the funeral, seeing

My dear friend Julie's baby boy Graham passed away yesterday. Please hold Scott and Julie and their families close in your prayers...

For those of you who don’t live in Iowa and aren’t all that familiar with the weather here…I just thought I’d give you a quick low down on the past few days. Saturday it was sunny, a little breezy, and FIFTY degrees outside! All the snow and ice were melting, the streets were wet with run off, and it felt like spring was around the corner. On Sunday morning it was still mild when we left the house for church, the sun was shining and it was FORTY-EIGHT degrees. As we made our way to church, we could see clouds headed our way and the wind started to pick up. By the time we came out of church it had completely clouded over, the wind was howling, and the temperature was TWENTY! The crazy temperature continued to spiral lower and lower quickly to a brisk THREE degrees. INSANE!!!!!!!!!!! Wind chills were negative TWENTY-FIVE this morning as I made my way to work…that’s NUTS folks…NUTS! Anyway, we managed to have a really good weekend, despite the borderline personality disorder of mot

November…where did you go!?!? I just can’t believe we are well into December now…the time is really just flying by. I know I’ve been really bad about posting updates, but things have just been so hectic. The holiday rush is in full swing and just tonight I finally feel a little calmer about things. We had a great Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad’s in Texas…oh, it was just the best time. We flew down on the 24th with Hope, Chad, and the kids…YIKES! Both kids traveled pretty darn well though, and we arrived in warm, sunny Texas all in one piece. It was so great to pull out the flip flops and sandals for one more hoorah! We spent most of the next few days just hanging out…quality time as a family and it was SORELY overdue! I wanted to soak as much of it up as possible. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a wonderful meal together, followed by a birthday celebration for Dad and Meghan. (They both loved the Barbie cake!) We spent time playing with the kids outside, running around the yard, writing

Greetings from…HOME! We are finally back home after a long, but FUN, trip to California! We got in a little late last night and finally settled in to bed about midnight. Matt was worried I’d still be on California time and wouldn’t be able to sleep…but I don’t think I moved all night and slept in just fine! I think I never really was ON California time…I was always ready to go to sleep at like NINE! LOSER, I know! Saturday we arrived in Anaheim early in the afternoon…but our bodies were dragging. Our flight had been changed and we had to leave at SIX AM…BLECK! We were up at three to make it to the airport around five. Of course we had to fly through Chicago and had a 3 hour layover there…double BLECK. I just hate flying out of my way to get to my destination…but there wasn’t much we could do when they rerouted our flights from Denver to Chicago. Anywhoo…we got checked in at the hotel, looked around, took a few pictures off the balcony, and then crashed. We ended up snoozing for an hou

Not even going to mention the election…except to quote my Dad and say that we are still very blessed to live in America and have the freedoms to choose our representatives. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. We’ve had another busy, busy week…and another one is looming in the horizon so I thought I’d take a few minutes to post this while I can. Halloween with the Kepler’s was just as much fun as I had hoped it would be. The kids were in fine form and happy to be out trick or treating. Hope and I took the kiddies around while Matt and Chad relaxed at home. Matthew wasn’t 100% sure he understood what he was supposed to do after ringing the doorbell, except to grab some candy and try to push past the homeowner and check out their house! We had to grab him more than once and pull him back outside! Stinker! Meghan was excited about the candy and surprised us all by offering to share her Reese’s peanut butter cups with her Uncle Matt (she only had 2 and gave one to him – which is a

I’ve decided to boycott the news…well, the TV in general I suppose. I’m just so, so, SO sick of being bombarded with all the election who-ha, political put downs, economic woes, and general bad newsiness. I know times are tough, really tough, for a lot of people…but come on, is there no good in the world today? Is there nothing fun, exciting, happy, and bright to talk about? I don’t want to be uniformed, but I just can’t take all this black doomsday crap anymore!! I mean, who is it helping? What GOOD is it doing? We can all sit around whining and moaning about this and that, worrying about the unknowns which lie ahead of us, creating knots in our stomachs, tensions in our households, anger in our workplace, but WHY? What for? Why are we doing this to ourselves!?!? It isn’t going to help, or change a darn thing. Honestly, I can see why so many other countries roll their eyes at Americans…we have so much to be thankful for and yet what are we doing to show it? I know there are people

Brr. It’s another cold, cloudy Monday for us here in Iowa…and fall is truly settling in. Though I think we’ll have a few warmer days later this week, I think we’re finally shifting into the colder weather more typical of this time of year. And it’s sooo dark in the morning. Bleck. I hate getting up and driving in to work in the dark, dark, dark cold morning. Next week is Daylight Savings time and that’ll help the dark morning, but create a dark early evening. What can you do? I did cheer myself up a little bit this morning as I trudged to the back door to let the dogs out, still half asleep…at least I don’t have to go out there anymore!!! I know I’ll really appreciate that fenced in yard come this winter when the temperatures dip down below zero…oh thank goodness for the new house and fenced in yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The weather this weekend was a bit crazy too…terribly windy and chilly yesterday. Saturday we caught a break though. Blake stopped over and took Matt for a ride

Lots of things to update on…where to start. First of all Fall has officially arrived here in Iowa…it’s down right COLD. We’ve been turning on the furnace a little here and there and sleeping with an extra blanket at night. Last night the wind was whistling and howling while the rain poured down…a few degrees colder and we’d have had an ice or snow problem! It really sounded like winter out there. Thankfully most of the rain has now stopped and we’ll hopefully warm up a bit the next few days. Saturday night we’re heading up to the ISU game and I’m hoping we won’t freeze our you-know-what’s off! This past week we’ve made some changes. We had ourselves a pretty good heart to heart and decided to stop the TCM treatments. For us, what it ultimately boils down to is what is worth sacrificing for, and what isn’t. Right now, it felt like we were sacrificing a lot to go through the treatments, but weren't seeing any benefits. After such a jam packed year with the move, China, followe

Just a few random thoughts about our dogs. I think we have the goofiest dogs…they are so loveable and just goofy. They love, and I mean LOVE the basement in our new house. They always run to their respective spots…Buddy on the futon, Penny on the giant doggie bed Blake and Amy handed down to us. They get so excited to go down there and often times just go hang out down there all by themselves. They’re just so proud of themselves when they plop down in their spots and just look at me. ‘See, see…we’re GOOD doggies!’ In this picture they look kind of scary with the flash in their eyes…but I just had to capture how funny they are in their own little doggie spots. They also play hide and seek with me. It’s dumb, I know…but when they get done eating their supper, or when they come in from outside and I’m in the other room they just race through the house trying to find me…searching excitedly from room to room…I can hear them approaching so I’ll usually hide behind a dresser, or in a clos

My friend Julie's baby Graham is scheduled to have his breathing tube removed this morning at 10:30. They've been weaning him off the breathing tube this week and his results have been a little touch and go, sometimes handling things fine, and sometimes struggling a bit. Please keep Graham, Julie, and their whole family in your thoughts today as they wait to see if Graham will finally be able to breath on his own. This is a big step for such a tiny little guy who has already been through so much. He needs strength, and I ask for prayers that God will provide it.

Is it weird that I was actually looking FORWARD to a Monday? I’m not sure I’ve ever really been glad to welcome a Monday before (except when on vacation)…but this week I was happy it was Monday and I didn’t have any obligations after work…I could just go HOME! What a concept!! Oh, how I miss the days of getting home at 4:30ish and relaxing with Matt, taking my time getting supper on the table, enjoying the late afternoon, etc. Our 4 days of acupuncture a week are starting to take their toll on me lately. While I know it is only temporary, and of course I want to do whatever Matt wants to try to bring healing, it is hard to keep up this tempo…especially with a cold. Of course, the hectic schedule may have increased the odds that I’d come down with a cold…but that’s neither here nor there really. I think we’re both a little run down right now…but I’m sure we’ll be on the rebound soon! This weekend was another full one…but full of good stuff for sure. On Saturday I met up with my frien

Funny side note…sixteen years ago today I met Matt for the first time. Do I write this every year on this date? I should go back and see…oh well. Either way, this date always sticks out in my mind as our first anniversary of sorts…the day we first came into each others’ lives. Ahh…just a couple of dorky teenagers. It’s hard to believe we’ve been together ever since. Well, I guess we did break up once, for a few hours…but I don’t know that it really counted. I think we always knew we were meant to be. This week has been another busy one, and naturally I have come down with a nasty cold. Go figure. Jay prescribed me some oh-so-yummy herbs to help me get over the cold sooner…and let me just say that I think maybe now I have a better appreciation of why Matt puts up such a fuss each time he drinks his. Oh man – I’m not sure I can describe how awfully awful, bleck-ity blecky, DIS-gusting these herbs are for me to drink. In the bag they smelled minty, maybe even a hint of lavender. ‘Oh, th

My parents celebrated their anniversary this week. My parents have been married for thirty seven years. THIRTY SEVEN YEARS! This is amazing to me. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have been raised in my family. While obviously no parents are perfect, I have to say that I think mine are pretty darn close. I love them so much…which I know sounds weird. I know I’m a big nerd…but I can’t help it. I love my Mom and Dad. I love spending time with them, talking to them, and hate that they live so far away. I always want to be with them on my birthday, celebrate all holidays together, and just BE together as a family as much as possible. They make me laugh, they always have good stories to tell, and most of all they just make me feel so loved and supported. They have been there for me all my life; helping me rehearse lines for my plays, teaching me to cook, shooting hoops, trying to teach me to hunt, supporting me at my volleyball and basketball games, and of course my plays and band con

Holy cow – where did September go?! I feel like this month just flew by and I hardly had a moment to sit down and write an update – so I apologize for the long delay in posting. Life just gets in the way sometimes, I guess! Last week we had some upsetting news about our doggies, and both had to have surgery on Monday to remove tumors. Each dog had a different kind of tumor in a different place that needed to come out. Penny had a large tumor on her left side that was bulging out for a few months. It seemed to be getting larger, so we decided to take her in. Buddy developed a weird red bump inside one of his ears a week or two ago, so I thought I’d take them both in…thinking neither one would be a big deal. Well – apparently I was wrong! I’m still waiting for pathology results on the tumors to find out for sure the type of tumors they were, if they were cancerous, and if they got it all or not. We’re hoping that both tumors were successfully removed and no cancer will be found in e

Well, it’s the end of another week…another jam-packed busy week! Phew…am I ready to kick back and relax on ‘Football Saturday’! Matt’s TCM treatments with Jay have been going well. It’s so great to be able to ask questions and talk about what parts of the body he’s working on with different needles. He actually ordered bigger/thicker needles to use on Matt and thinks he may use them on more of his patients too…it seems to get the desired results faster than twisting the smaller ones. The other day he placed needles in Matt’s abdomen and talked about how he’s trying to strengthen his stomach and kidneys…that improving strength here will push out strength to the limbs as well. He’s been changing up the needle placement with each visit, so Matt is definitely getting a good variety of acupuncture points! We also started the herbal therapies last night. We got our teapot and herbs from Jay on Wednesday and I cooked them up last night. Pouring the herbs out, I was surprised at how the