"Once you choose hope, anything's possible."

Dan

When I started working in the Intensive Care Unit I was extremely nervous. To see how sick patients were and all the new things I had to learn made me very scared. Luckily I had the most amazing teacher, Dan. He took me under his wing and made work more fun. Whenever I had the opportunity to work with him I knew it was going to be a fun day no matter what stress the unit was under. Dan always made me laugh and the way he cared for his patients was amazing. He always went above and beyond and he made me realize why I wanted to become a nurse. Dan made the unit fun for everybody and always brought everybody up. Dan immediately became an amazing friend and I loved how fast our friendship grew. When I started working in the unit Dan started having health issues and nothing seemed to turn up on what it could have been. After months of misdiagnosis we finally had an answer. Dan was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma with mets to his liver, spleen, and bone marrow. I will never forget the anger I had run through me when Dan tearfully told me the news. I remember being so angry that this wonderful new friend of mine was now fighting for his life. For the first day I stayed angry and spent most of my time crying. The next day I woke up realizing this wasn't going to go away and for Dan to win this battle we all have to battle with him. I immediatly started a pray line with all my friends and family. It not only brought everyone that doesn't even know Dan in the fight, but brought people together. I know God has a purpose for all this and I may not understand it or ever understand it. I always have to remind myself that God doesn't give us anything we cannot handle, and I KNOW Dan is going to beat this!! He is an amazing man who will not step down. Dan's first cycle of chemo went well and he is making huge improvements. Unfortunatly the expenses are adding up and on top of that since Dan cannot work he is losing his insurance. I know sometimes the world doesnt make sense, but now we just have to do what we can. To help Dan, my awesome friend and co-worker, Debi is organzing a benefit on March 20th from 6-11:30 at Corpus Christi. Tickets are ten dollars. We will have a cash bar, music, raffles, 50/50, and food. I am helping Debi with this event so I want to get the word out as much as possible. It is a great opportunity for people to come together and help someone in need. If you are interested please contact me for information and I will be more than happy to get you what you need. Please help be apart of Dan's victory over cancer & keep him in your prayers.


To Dan I love you very much and I am so proud of you for fighting this battle and still managing to be you. Honestly there are not enough good things I can say about you. You are an amazing friend and know that I will ALWAYS be there for you no matter what. I love you big brother!

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill

25 Things About Me!

Conrad and Me

1. I married my high school sweetheart Conrad on our 5 year anniversary October 25th 2008. He is my bestfriend & I am so lucky to be with him.

2. Conrad and I have an amazing son named Warren Braxton Bontrager. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I cannot thank God enough for putting him in my life.

3. God is my savior and everyday I live for him.

4. I am obsessed with the Colts & Notre Dame. Always will be.

5. Fall is my favorite season.

6. I can touch my tongue to my nose.

7. I am a complete neat freak.

8. I am so competitive. Its ridiculous. Like its really going to be difficult for me to let Braxton win in games when he is older.

9. I celebrate my Birthday for entire month!

10. I was on the Bozo show..you just can't beat that.

11. I love taking pictures and have them all over my house.

12. I am in love with the show Friends. I have all ten seasons. In fact I had to buy some over again because the discs skip so bad from me watching them so much.

13. I am terrified of heights, roller coasters, and airplanes. Ive only been on an airplane once in my life..if I can avoid it I will 100%.

14. I am going to school to be a nurse.

15. I love watching home videos.

16. I have always been active. I work out regularly. I love running & CrossFit.

17. My family is soo important to me.

18. I am obsessed with Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen.

19. I love Wine.

20. I would love to live in Tennessee.

21. I have 2 tattoos.

22. My favorite place to be in the summer is my parent's lake place. I love boating.

23. I hate scary movies.

24. I love Country Music.

25. We have a Yorkie named Kylie

Warren Braxton Bontrager

Braxton with his fav dog Milo

Braxton giving his new dog Tanner a bath. (Of course Milo is in the other hand)

So how can I not do a post related to my favorite boy in the world. Warren Braxton Bontrager who is now 2 1/2, is so amazing. He is talking none stop, full of energy, and always making my day. I am telling you God gave me the greatest gift when he brought Braxton into my life. The other day we were at the mall, and decided to make a stop at build a bear. Of couse my son talked me into getting him one, and let me tell you it was worth every penny. We ended up making a dog, and if anyone of you know my child you know how much he loves dogs. He already carries his dog Milo everywhere he goes and now he has a new one named Tanner that he made at build a bear. Braxton is in love with his new friend and the hugs and kisses I got were worth it. It is amazing to see your child light up and respond to you in that way. Sometimes with children we let those moments pass us by, but right there in build a bear when my son was giving me the biggest hug and kiss I realized how much I loved that moment, and never wanted to let it pass me by. Like they always say stop and smell the roses, one day my son will be 18 (it makes me cringe just thinking of it), and off to college and I wont get to see him all the time so I have to remind myself to enjoy the moment.:)

What's really important

This is a story I have to share. A while back I was looking at Braxton's stroller and realized I needed something better to run with. I had always wanted a jogging stroller and I thought well I will go look. So I went to babies-R-us and I found the perfect one. I decided to buy it because it was on sale. After I was done at babies-r-us I thought well I have to go to my favortie store Target because well why not. As I was there I saw the same stroller for a cheaper price so I called babies-r-us to see if they would match it and they said yes. I drove back to babies-r-us and they told me they needed a flyer to prove it, I just told them well I am just going to give this one back and go buy Target's because I didn't need all this hassel. I was so irritated and to make matters worse when I got back to Target I realized they were out of the stroller. I was fuming. Here I was trying to buy a stroller and I had made 4 trips already and had NO stroller. I just decided to give up for the day. As I was leaving Target I saw a girl who was in tears with her head looking down at the ground, almost as if she was embarressed. Then I noticed she was holding a sign that was asking for help to feed her family because she was a single Mom who had lost her job. Every angry emotion I had fadded away and I realized God was reminding me about what really is important in life. Right after I saw her I took off to my house to fill up bags of food. I couldn't believe how ridiculous I was being over a stroller, when this girl had no money to feed her children. Once I got back to the girl I handed her bags of food, she was so thankful she gave me the biggest hug. It brought tears to my eyes. After people in there cars saw me, they all were bringing out things to give her too. It was like they realized the same thing I had realized that day. Sometimes in life we forget about whats important. There are people with no roof over their head, no food on the table, or fighting for their life with an illness and we get upset because that shirt we really wanted wasn't in our size. Really take time to remember what matters in life and how lucky we are to have the things we have. God had answered my prayers that day when I asked for guidance and only reassured me that he is always guiding me through my journey in life.

Here I go

So I have noticed lately a lot of people are into blogging. Some people might think it is a waste of time, I on the other hand think it might be a great opportunity for my family to take some time to share things going on in our lives and what life really is about. So here we go hope you all enjoy the ride as much as we do.