Memorial Day

A version of this has been going around e-mail. I want to personally thank every soldier who has sacrificed so much to serve our country. To protect our freedoms, and keep America a safe place. To the families, thank you as well for sacrificing the time with your loved one. To the families of the fallen: thank you for your ultimate sacrifice. To the POW's and MIA's: You are NOT forgotten. God Bless You All.

Thank you to the American Soldier.

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.
If you love your freedom, thank a vet. God Bless You, and God Bless America.

99 Things

I found this blog hopping today, but the person I got it from got it from Jamee at A ew Kind of Normal. Though it looked kind of fun...not your typical meme!



1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visted Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone Rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Effel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone Whale Watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Save a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Publish a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stanger at midnight on New Years Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone's life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Gotten a tatoo

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

Now it's your turn! Copy and paste this to your blog, highlight YOUR answers, and then come back here and leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can check it out!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day tomorrow! Heartfelt thanks to all who serve and have served our country. God bless you!

Updates and Plans For MG Awareness Month

It's been a long day. A few GREAT things first:

My treatment went amazingly well yesterday. It was the FIRST time in hundreds of treatments that I didn't even feel the needles. Not even a little. It was AWESOME!!

Secondly, my father (71, not in great health, has emphysema, diabetes and won't quit smoking) soared through knee surgery with flying colors. He's feeling better than he was before surgery.

Now, for a couple things I'm doing for June, which is National Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month. I am bombarding Associated Content (www.associatedcontent.com) with articles about MG. I'm going through my personal story as well. I would love for you to check it out...and view my articles! Just search for Kerri Sweeris on that website.

Secondly, my husband works for the city we live by. He told me to contact the City Manager to ask him about receiving a proclamation regarding June being National MG Awareness Month at a City Council meeting in June. This would be covered by the media, so that would be awesome!

I'll keep you posted!

Random Thoughts

1. I am so completely OCD. I can't stop doing a crossword puzzle until either it's done, or all the words going across match up in a straight line.

2. I was at the doctors office Wednesday and the front two table legs of their perfectly lovely evenly sided square coffee side table were tapered in from top to bottom. WHY?!?!??! I couldn't concentrate the entire visit.

3. Did you know you can walk a bumble bee? Catch them (Jacob had 3 in his butterfly house the other day), put them in the freezer for 10 minutes (this won't kill them, just slow 'em down a lot), and you can gently tie a string on them and take them for a walk as they come out of it.

4. The caterpillars that make beautiful butterflies are hideous. I think there's a life lesson in there somewhere.

5. Going to Ann Arbor today. Plasmapheresis. I've had somewhere around 300 plasmapheresis treatments in the past 10 years. Maybe more.

6. We went swimming for the first time this season last night. Jacob has grown about 5 inches since last summer, according to where the water hits him.

7. Our black lab thinks that our homemade duck pond is a fantastic swimming pool.

8. I completely overdid it yesterday, but this morning fell much better. Not 100%, but close to my "normal." (No comment from the peanut gallery).

9. I love to write more than anything else in the world. I'm a word nerd. Finding just right word for the right occasion, LOVE IT. Guess that's why I like to teach.

10. Blogging has opened up a whole new world to me, and I love it. I have met some amazing people. Some not so amazing, but overall it's been a hugely positive experience. I can totally be me, and most people get that. Very cool.

Hope everyone has a FANTASTIC Memorial Day weekend. Don't forget to thank a vet!!!

Check

1 little boy fed. Check. {several times!}

3 dogs put outside. Check {several times!!}

4 loads of laundry washed, 3 dried, 2 folded, 1 untouched. Check.

Live ants ordered for our ant farm. Check.

Caterpillars examined, hypothesis written. Check. (We bought caterpillars through the mail that come in a little jar with "food" in it. After a while they make their chrysallis then we put them in a butterfly house until they come out. So today "we" wrote down our observations and formulated our hypothesis. Yes, my son is 3 1/2, yes he knows what a hypothesisis, and even gave correct one.)

Dining room and family room vacuumed. Check.

Dished washed. Check.

Eyes completey hosed. Check.

Neck getting super tired. Check.

Almost ready to collapse. Check.

Totally overdid it. Check.

Myasthenia gravis sucks. Check.

God is still good, and tomorrow is another day. Check.

M'k. So Joanna and I were at McTalking time last night Woot! Woot! (Bible study at McDonalds). First of all, we will NEVER go on a Tuesday night again...it's like FAMILY night or something, and people come with all their hooligans and do crafts and let them run around like animals. Not much in a restaurant bugs me more than that. This one monster was LOUD. I mean walls-shaking-everyone-turn-and-couldn't-help-but-stare loud. What are people thinking??? Obvisously they must not be!

Then there's the LOUD MOM. Another little monster was running back and forth through the restaurant. Completely out of control. Mommy dearest was screaming her fool head off. I looked at Joanna like, "People do realize we're in public? Inside? In the year 2010?" Bizarre.

There was also this tiny little girl with curly reddish hair and the bluest eyes. She looked like one of the babies on the Northern toilet paper packs they used to have. She and her big brother were there with Grandpa, and although she must have walked back and forth to get a drink like 34 times, she was a little mouse about it. She was SO stinkin' cute. Regardless. No more family nights for us in Timbuktu.

Today I had an appointment for a check on my diabetes. Up to Grand Rapids. Jacob was scheduled to go to Auntie Shawn's, thank God, because it was HOT. They ran though sprinklers most of the day, so he is currently passed out on the couch. Our air conditioner doesn't really work in the car, so Doug has to keep charging it. It worked fine this morning, but by this afternoon, not so much.

The down to Plainwell to go to the backcracker. Somewhere in there were Costco and Meijer also. I'm like a walking zombie. So tired. Eyes a wee bit messed up... just drooping like crazy. Heat effects MG probably more than any other outside influence other than stress. Stress is the WORST thing for me and my MG. Heat is second. As far as the stress thing goes: I have a workaholic husband (who loves me very much, but he's just always busy), several chronic illnesses to juggle, 25 pills (at least) per day to take, appointments to schedule (which I have to go to alone now since Doug won't take work off anymore)....not to mention 3 dogs and a very, very busy 3 1/2 year old. The list is endless.

And time management....That stresses me to the core. If ANYONE has this figured out, can you PLEASE fill me in? How do I get 24 hours of stuff done in 24 hours when I need to sleep for 8? Frustrating. But I know that's life for lots of folks...which is why I'm praying one of you will have an answer!!

It's been hot here. I mean HOT. I've never done heat exceptionally well, except for when I was a child, and was just in the pool 12 hours a day. We literally went from frost to 90 in less than a week. Welcome to Michigan!

I'm not sure what it is about the heat and MG...espeically humidity. When it's this hot, I walk outside, and everything in me from the brain down just says "I'm going to collapse now." And
me and my brain have to yell at my body to knock it off! Oh well. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little better, then this weekend, gorgeous.

Ann Arbor Friday for plasmapheresis, so that's my week. I'm one pooped pup.

The GOOD Things About Having MG

Yup, you read that right. The GOOD things. Because there are plenty. And instead of whining about my eyes being messed up or my trach hurting or any number of myasthenia related issues that have plagued me, I will tell you some wonderful things I never would have experienced without this illness.

I learned that my husband is a man of strong character. He is faithful, trustworthy, loyal, Godly, a wonderful protector and provider. Six weeks after we were married I was in the hospital on a ventilator. No one knew (except God of course) whether I would live or die. Even though he is a Christian man, he could have just said, "I didn't sign up for this!" But he took his marriage vows seriously, in sickness or in health. He stands by me to this day. I love you honey.

I have met some amazing people that I never would have known without this disease connecting us. Two young ladies in particular, that I have just recently met, that I have connected with...(Their blog links are on my sidebar)...These women are amazing. They are strong. They both work, have families, and still manage this wicked disease. One prays for me. One has the patience of Job and is helping me with computer stuff that I just don't know how to do, AND made my signature and button. I just met her! I love ya girls!!

I learned that I am a lot stronger than I think. I always knew I was STUBBORN (like in the hospital....just too stubborn to die! : ), but I never realized the strength that God had given me. And I wouldn't have if I hadn't gotten MG. It takes a lot more to keep going than it does to give up. Can I get an Amen??? (Joanna get out your hanky, girl, and start wavin'!) : )

I have deepened a few friendships to the point of KNOWING I could call either of these women in the middle of the night, and they would do whatever it took to help me. I can trust them both implicity with my precious child, and that speaks volumes. Joanna, Shawn, thank you. I love you both so much, and you are amazing, godly examples of loving one another. I don't know what I'd do without you!

My relationship with God is on a whole different level than it would have been. He showed me what it means to depend on Him. He has blessed me with things I can't even describe. I was able to share my story with a man who was chronically ill, had given up on God, and just hated life. He wanted to die and was not saved, according to his wife. She and a friend from the church I was attending at the time prayed for him daily. The friend asked me to pray as well. I sent this man a card to let him know I was praying for him. I was later told that when he got my card (I enclosed a picture of my son so he could SEE that miracles happen) he cried. He couldn't believe someone who didn't even know him cared enough to do that. His health did improve for a while, but he ended up passing away. And when he did, he knew the Lord, and was in heaven, praising God. To know that I had ANY teeny part in that, because of what God had given me to deal with....WOW. Every minute of suffering was worth that.

I have learned to appreciate life. I don't get angry like I used to. Quite frankly, I don't have the energy! I'm not nearly as impatient as I was, and things just don't get under my skin. I am in awe of the beauty that surronds me...God's magnificent creation. I really SEE it now, instead of just speeding through life with my head down, nose to the grindstone.

My son takes my breath away. I know I would love my child no matter what...but going through what I had to go through to have him makes me look at him, and just thank God he is in my life. Sometimes I watch him and think, how did I ever live my life without this little boy? He makes my heart just feel like it could burst inside me. It's so full, it's like it just can't hold anymore.

So I'm here to tell you....you may be going through hell right now. You may be thinking, I just CAN'T do this one. more. day. Oh, friends. I have been there. I have shed the tears. I have shaken my fists at God and railed at the heavens. But then those very fists have turned into open palms of praise, thanking God for who He is, and what He has done for me.