It's a book!!!

So we survived New York! The weather was beautful this trip and we enjoyed walking around seeing the sights. We arrived Thursday morning and spent the day walking around, eating, and shopping. Thursday night we were invited to go watch the taping of World News with Diane Sawyer. Sloan has had a crush on her since he was a little boy, so needless to say, he was floored. Lol. We arrived at ABC studios and were shocked to learn that they offered us to be on the set! If you've ever noticed the people in the background behind Diane on computers looking 'busy'.....well, we got to do that! It was hysterical to me because they logged us on the computers and were like "get online, get on Facebook, whatever, we just need you to look inconspicous and busy" I didn't have time to call friends or family, so I immediately found friends and family online and started chatting. At one point I started grinning like the Cheshire Cat and then people were instant messaging me saying things like "We see you smiling!" which only made it harder for me to keep a straight face. Lol. It lasted 30 minutes and then much to our surprise when taping was over, Diane invited us to hug and take a pic!!! Sloan was pretty much speechless and I was gushing as usual. Ha.

That night we ate at a Brazilian Restaurant that was fabulous. Those who know me, know how much I love food.....and vacations pretty much revolve around it. Lol. After we ate, I received some VERY exciting news from friends back home.  The Military Warriors Support Foundation presented my longtime childhood friend Andrew, an Army Commendation Medal and Purple Heart recipient with a new home at the Ranger game!  He and his wife Amy and kids are so deserving and I had been praying that this blessing would come through for them. We were on the streets of NY grinning big for them :)

Friday morning we got up and got ready and headed for my interview with 20/20. I was SO nervous as usual. It never gets any easier, whether I'm speaking at a church, in front of 5 people, or on TV, it's always so nerve wracking for me. The interview went very well though and will be airing Sept. 7th on ABC. It was a typical interview, but the thing I was most excited about was the opportunity to share my new book coming out! I've not allowed myself to get excited much, but being able to share it with the world on TV, the excitement is starting to creep up on me. The book is anticipated to be on shelves by the end of October if everything goes well. I'm literally in the home stretch and the light is very near the end of the tunnel. It's been an amazing journey to walk out for sure. Anyway, I wanted to let ya'll know that you have the ability to go to my publisher's website and 'reserve' a copy if you like. The site is:  www.indigoriverpublishing.com

I'd blog more, but I have 2 girls tugging on my arm and we are about to leave to go have dinner with family.........plus I'm starving (big surprise) and can't focus well. Hope everyone had a great weekend and for those of you near me, enjoy this rain!!!

Blessings,

Sarah

New York......again!

Sloan and I arrived in New York this morning. I'll be doing an interview with 20/20 tomorrow that will air Sept. 7th. I'm excited because I'll be debuting my book on the show :) We are currently sitting at a hotel eating free wine and cheese and fixing to head to a taping of World News. Sloan is thrilled to get to see his lifelong crush, Diane Sawyer. Lol. I'll blog more later.

Blessings,
Sarah

Distractions....

So, let's just be honest......I suck at keeping my blog up to date. Lol. I guess I feel as though I have so much going on in my daily life that I don't find myself sitting at my desktop much. I'd rather have tea parties with my girls, ride horses, read a good book, play games with friends, spend time outdoors, etc. Seems as though there are a million things I could be doing at any given time. Lately we have been getting ready for the 3rd annual Ross Churman Memorial Roping. It's a roping that was started in my father in law's memory. He passed away in Jan. 2010. Check out our website at: http://rosschurmanmemorialroping.com/# or find us on Facebook to see what we're all about. It's always the 2nd weekend in Sept. and has been a great roping thus far.

Anyway, other than that I've been continuing to work on my book. Some weeks are easier than others when it comes to writing. Overall, I'm excited and beginning to let myself actually feel some of that excitement! I'm a big 'don't count your chickens before they hatch' kinda gal. I keep  having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that there are folks out there who would want to read what I write....but apparently there are :) God willing, the book will be out this winter.

As for my hearing implants...........they only get better as the days go by! I'm still adjusting to having 2 though, and I do find myself tiring easily on some days. Bless my kids hearts....they can be loud! Being in places where there are tons of people or noises tends to overwhelm me, but I'm still elated that I can actually function and take part in situations like that. I keep having people ask me if I still read lips, and the answer is....I forget a lot but I'm trying to keep it up just because I think it's a good skill set to have. I have started to not use captioning on TV and movies to put my ears to good use and practice actually hearing words spoken instead of cheating and reading them. I haven't used the captioning device at the movies in a while, and that's been nice too. I still have many moments where I'll be talking to someone and they'll pause mid story and be like "You are totally hearing me right now aren't you?!?" Lol. It sounds crazy, but I forget sometimes that I haven't always heard like this. Just goes to show how easily we forget.

Hope everyone has a great week,

Sarah <3

August

August marks a year since my first Esteem surgery. It's so hard to believe a whole year has already flown by. It's been a crazy, emotional, amazingly blessed year. Ill never forget the feeling when Sloan called to tell me about hearing the ad for the Esteem on Rush Limbaugh, and the feeling when I called the company to ask a million questions only to find out that the surgery was $30,000 per ear. That was possibly the most heartbreaking moment of my life......but I held fast and remembered and believed wholeheartedly the promise of God through the words of Ross while we were living in China "He who promised, IS faithful". The moment Lari came to us and let us know she felt led to cash out her savings, newly widowed I might add, I knew...........We all knew, 'God's got this!'. The rest of the story you all know, and even though they'll prob never see this.....thank you Ellen DeGeneres for your kind heart, thank you Envoy Medical for all the blood sweat and tears you guys have put into this miracle of a device, and thank you to all those who joined me in my prayer requests along the way. And to the one who will see this, Lari, thank you for believing, and listening, and trusting in God. You ARE the best mother in law a gal could have. Most importantly....thank you to Sloan.....the man who was gonna sell his kidney or do whatever he had to 'hell or high water' to make my dream come true. Thank you for standing by me, taking care of me, loving me, and being the man you are. God certainly broke the mold when he made you ♥

Mother's Day...

Mother's Day is an important day. I'm reminded that we are to honor our Mothers because it's God's word................but I also honor my Mothers because I love them. Love above all else is worth more than any material possession we have here on Earth. If only we could all realize that our status in the job world, what car we drive, what house we live in, and the amount in our bank accounts pales ...in comparison to having love. Like someone said earlier today, birthing a child is the easy part.....it's raising them in this dark world that the hard part begins. I hope that when I'm on my death bed many years from now and gazing in to my daughter's faces, I can look back on their lives and see that we taught them to 'above all else' love. I hope they realize that Sloan and I have worked so hard to teach them that love and being happy far surpasses anything else we can get/give in life. We have been on a journey for quite some time now that to the rest of the world seems crazy.......but I truly believe that because we have been obedient and followed our hearts, we are being rewarded. Blessings to ALL the Mothers out there, ones who have birthed children, ones who have raised children, and ones who are examples and role models to children, and that covers us all ♥

^ The above statement was my recent Facebook status. That in turn reminded me that it has been far too long since I've blogged! So many 'little things' have gone on and I'm so far behind I can't remember all I'd like to blog about. I went earlier this week for my first adjustment appointment on my newest ear. Found out that I had a bit of scar tissue, so they weren't able to do my adjustment and instead did a minor surgery to remove the tissue. My ear is packed and healing and I will go back in 3 weeks or so to have the actual adjustment and make sure all is well. Other than that minor hiccup, my ears are still doing great :) I'm learning more and more to 'use them' well and still getting used to things.

Sloan had to work today, so he took his Mom and I to breakfast this morning. We parted ways and the girls and I went to church. After church we loaded in the car with Muz (what the girls call Sloan's Mom) and we went to visit Nannie (Sloan's Grandmother). She recently had a pacemaker put in and is now home doing well. Anyway, we stopped after visiting her to grab a bite to eat. We sat at the table at Subway getting ready to eat and I realized my most favorite song in the whole world came on......"Shooting Star" by Bad Company. (What can I say, I am an 80's kid) I distinctly remember listening to Bad Company's music as a kid. My Dad and his band buddies played them a lot, he had the record and eventually the cassette tape. Cassette tapes always had the song lyrics folded up in the cover..............I knew all of Bad Company's songs and attempted to sing them at the top of my lungs horribly off beat and out of tune with the actual music. Because of my hearing impairment, my parents often allowed me to blast music at an all time high so I could attempt to enjoy it and really feel the vibrations well. Anyway, I for some reason took to "Shooting Star" and it became my favorite. So back to Subway, we were sitting there and I told the girls "Ohhhhhhh! Mommy loved this song when she was a kid!" I sat at the table and sang along. Every single lyric. In rhythm to the music.........it was epic!!! The music wasn't even up that loud! I say all this to say that even now, months later, I still have those "WOW" moments where it hits me that I can now do things like that :)

In other news, long story short...my English Bulldog 'Bruno' was stolen a couple of weeks ago.  I was heartbroken and so were the girls. Bruno is a high dollar champion dog that was given to us from a very kind person. However, he was returned to us 2 days later. We literally pulled in the driveway on Sunday night after going to put a down deposit on a new Boston Terrier puppy, and there he sat tied up to a saw horse in my yard with a note that said "Here's your dog back". (I'm all about replacing one heartache with another ASAP....plus I have little girls who love dogs, so I just sucked it up, accepted that he was gone, and searched for another pup) Anyway, we pull up and there he sits. Sloan looked at me and said "Well, you probably ought to call that lady and let her know you'll be coming by for your deposit because you no longer need that new puppy now that Bruno is back." Um. No. We now have Bruno and "Dotti" the teeny tiny Boston Terrier pup. She's a doll and the kids and I love her. Sloan too......he even admitted it the other day.

In 3 weeks we'll be heading down to New Braunfels for our yearly river floating trip!!!! I am beyond excited for this year's trip!!!!!! Why you ask??? Because I can float and HEAR EVERYTHING!!!! I absolutely LOVE the water. I grew up in a pool/lake/river/puddle and I am most content when water is involved. I have always not been able to enjoy it to the fullest because I've had to take my hearing aids out and not be able to interact with folks. Floating the river is always fun for the first hour or so, then I start getting angry because I'm missing out on what everyone is laughing about or talking about. It's hard to read lips when you're floating all over the place and turning about. I end up being grumpy and make it un-enjoyable for Sloan because of it. This year I'm plain giddy to go!!! Can't wait.

Well, I realize my thoughts are all over the place and I'm sorry. Gonna end it here, I've got nervous energy to kill. I've started making bows again and I've got all my stuff spread out and it's calling my name.

One last thing.......Mr. McCain, if you're reading this, THANKS! Your gift has been an amazing blessing ;)

Sunday Night...

Howdy.

My thoughts lately are all geared toward the book I'm working on and I can't seem to make myself blog.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter, we did. Spent it with family as usual. We did have some bad weather and tornadoes in our area, thankfully though nothing on our place was in the path. We did have some friends and family that were not as fortunate, but no one was hurt.

Got our chicken coop built, got a few more chickens, and are now enjoying having eggs! I'm tickled at the fact that you can literally clock our one laying hen........she lays at the same time every day! Is that normal? Olivia and Elise like getting the eggs, and they LOVE playing in the coop as well and will entertain themselves in there for quite some time. I guess I should be glad they can entertain themselves so easily?

I did an interview with the paper a few weeks ago, and then Life Teen a couple of days ago and enjoyed those. The article for the paper was already published and the one for Life Teen hasn't gone to print yet. As for anything else going on, I have nothing at this time that I know of. I do have the pleasure of going go Minnesota next week for Envoy Medicals annual share-holders meeting. They are flying us up there to meet everyone and be a part. I'm excited. I've never been to Minnesota, and it will be nice to meet everyone there.

Today I attended a memorial service for my Great Uncle that died. He was 84 and had been in bad health this last year. He was a member of AA and had been for 20+ years. There were several people from his group that got up and spoke, as well as others. As I sat there listening to all these folks talk about how my Uncle Tommy had impacted them over the years, I was reminded of how I felt when my Grandpa and my FIL passed away and we had their funeral services. It's amazing to hear so many people speak of how these men impacted them in such a prominent way in their lives. I find that the common thread every time is love. Every person is so affected by someone showing love and kindness. I am also reminded of when we went to China. The company that hired us to go over stated that our sole mission was just to go over and love on the Chinese. It wasn't about trying to 'convert them' or 'teach them', it was simply about showing love and kindness. I often say over and over that I wished people (myself included) could wake up every day and have the mindset to be kind to every person they meet. I know that will never happen, but it'd be awesome if it did.

Anyway, I'm babbling on. Hope everyone has a great week. I get to start my Monday off going to the dentist. LOL. I don't have a problem with the dentist..........I just hate going because I'd rather spend my time doing something outside, or playing with the girls, or about a million other things. I find I'm like a kid in that way.

Blessings,
Sarah <3

Like the rain.......

Wow! So much has gone on and I've been bad to keep up on here. So sorry! I did have my 2nd ear activated, and I posted the link to that. It's hard to explain it, it's just a crazy sensation. I now have 'stereo sound' and it's an adjustment in itself. Lol. We have had some incredible storms lately, and being able to sit and listen to the thunder, the rain, and the wind has been incredible. Sloan and I have laid in bed at night and just listened. He told me the other day that even though he's been with me for 12 years and has experienced everything I've experienced, every struggle, every heartache, etc. Everything has a new meaning now and a new beauty for him. Watching me experience life anew has changed his perspective on many things. Thousands of complete strangers, people like YOU have said the same thing. Thanks for 'cheering' me on during this journey :)

Switching gears now.......A documentary film crew flew in for the activation and spent several days here. It was a group of 3 men, 2 from Cali, one from NY. They were an awesome group. When you find out you're going to have strangers in your home for a few days, it's always a little nerve wracking. Not even gonna lie. So far, everyone that has spent time with us, has been great. I think we connected with these guys the most so far though. They were just really nice and down to earth. We took them one night to see our friend's band (Josh Weathers Band) and they really seemed to enjoy that. We also had a party one night and we had them over for that, everyone really enjoyed meeting them and they seemed to enjoy themselves. They did interviews and did a bang up job on those..........they asked great questions and took lots of pictures. I'm excited to see the end result! You never realize how much work goes into a project like that until you experience it firsthand. These men flew across the U.S. to spend a few days with us, filmed footage like crazy, took a million photographs, and will go home and edit and cut and do their awesome work for a short film. It's humbling for someone to do that just to show your 'story'. I'll keep you all posted on the outcome and when you can see it.

As for what I'm enjoying most at this moment.............MUSIC! I get the full spectrum of it now and it's amazing. People constantly ask what I listen to, well as of right now my top 'play lists' are Dustin Kensrue, Abigail Washburn, Josh Weathers, Adele, 80's music (Bad Company, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc.), The Judds (Ha), and a million others. I am learning more and more that I really have eclectic tastes in music! Makes sense........I have always been an eclectic person in general :) I kidnap Sloan's I Pod constantly and plug it into the thingy in our kitchen and blast music while cleaning or just doing stuff. The girls have always loved it when their Daddy blasts music and they all dance and go crazy. It's sort of a daily routine around here, except now I can really join in and enjoy.

Other exciting news??? We planted our garden :) We've had tons of rain recently and the garden is loving it! Got lil sprouts coming up and I'm enjoying not having to water it ;) In other 'lil sprouts' news, we also have baby rabbits. We breed and raise Californian meat rabbits, and one Momma had her babies last weekend. Another Momma is due this weekend. We also have Lovebirds, and they have laid eggs that are due to hatch next week if they are fertile. We shall see. Everything is growing, being born, and changing colors. Spring has definitely sprung around here!

I oftentimes have a hard time blogging because I think "People don't want to hear about my everyday boring life". So, I'm gonna try something new.............If you are interested in asking me a question or sending me a 'survey' of sorts, hit me up! I promise to do better about blogging. Send me your questions, survey, etc. and I'll answer it(them) and post it here!

Hope all of you have a great day!

Much love,

Sarah

P.S. The photo above is a 'sneak peek' at the pictures our new friend Luis Pena took. He's an awesome photographer!!!