No Surgery? Sounds a bit "squirrelly"...

About one month ago I was SICK, SICK, SICK!

I was so sick that I didn't feel like getting out of bed.

At first I just thought I had a bad case of the flu,

but when I became extremely nauseous, was "throwing up", chilling, fever,

and had developed extreme pain in the right lower quadrant of my abdomen,

I became suspicious of appendicitis.
My husband insisted on taking me to the doctor's office.
After ordering a CT scan, my family doctor gave me the choice
 of going home on antibiotics or being admitted to the hospital.
I didn't live far from the hospital, so decided to go home.

As a registered nurse, I felt I was pretty familiar
 with the symptoms of appendicitis,

but looked them up to refresh my memory.

Yep!  I had about every one of them!

To see what they are, click HERE to take you to WebMD.

When my symptoms were slightly improved,
but not gone after six days of antibiotic therapy,

my family doctor referred me to a surgeon.

Now, here was the surprise to me - No surgery recommended!

The surgeon changed my antibiotics, 

and stated that appendicitis cases were often treated this way

instead of the standard "appendectomy" that had been done for years!

He stated that European countries had been doing this treatment

successfully for many years.

He didn't send me home without instructing me to contact him

immediately if the pain worsened, if I started throwing up again,

or if I began vomiting again.

He also said,
"I'm not telling you that you have appendicitis,
but I'm certainly not telling you that you don't!"

We have a saying in the south when something sounds unusual,
unbelievable, or possibly outlandish,
we say it sounds "squirrelly"!

So, I went to the "web" and looked up information to verify this.

In one study, to my surprise I found that 88% of patients treated with antibiotics

recovered without any problems!

(Click on the highlighted letters to see that link.)

Although I had some problems with the side-effects of the antibiotics,

one month later, I seem to have had a full recovery.

Thank you, Jesus!

Sooooo,
like these birds appear to be sharing,
I thought I'd share this information with you!

To see my latest Name of God on Rocks post,

click HERE or for one of my related posts on healing, click HERE!

Thanks for your visit!

If you enjoy birding photos from around the world,

hop on over to Stewart's Gallery, 

where we all get to show off our bird photography.

Bird Songs - Random, Inborn, or Learned?

I've been reading the most interesting book by Donald Kroodsma

entitled The Singing Life of Birds.

To view a sample of it or to buy it, 

click on the link above to take you to the Amazon bookstore.
Included in it is a CD of birdsongs which I have really enjoyed.

What I've found the most interesting is that some birds,

like the Eastern Phoebe, seem to have their songs built in them.

Other song birds, like the little wren, have to practice learning

the songs of their parents.

I guess that's like a lot of us...

Some of us are born with a God-given talent,

and some of us have to work very hard at developing that talent!

I'm not sure about the blue jay's songs,
if they learn how to holler out "Thief Thief" from their parents,
or if it's inborn.

But I do know this guy had trouble hanging on to my feeder!

To see my unusual run of Names for God on Rocks post this week,

click HERE!

And if you'd like to see a variety of birds from around the world,

check out Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday blog hop!

Quests...

I've had several quests this summer.

I've tried some unusual feeders (and feed!) for the little hummers.
(Click on highlighted letters above for additional post on the hummingbirds.)

I've tried to catch the yellow bellied sapsucker
who probably made these holes in my dying maple tree,
but only caught pictures of a little hairy or downy instead.

This is the best I could capture of a phoebe this summer.
I love their songs,
but have a hard time catching them for a photo.

But my latest quest has probably been my health...

I'll probably write a blog about it before long,

...maybe after my next doctor visit...

To see my latest Name of God,

click HERE to see the Aramaic writing.

Thanks to Stewart for allowing me to link this post to
Wild Bird Wednesday!
Click on the link above to see interesting bird shots from around the world!



Produce!

When my own little garden doesn't do so good,

I like to visit the Farmer's Market to buy fresh local produce.

 



But this year, my garden has done pretty good!
I've certainly had all the cucumbers I wanted,
...and enough to share!

Our apple tree is loaded,
but we didn't spray again this year, 
because the wren family had already made a nest
in the little house that hung on its lower branches.
(To see the wren's "family photos", click HERE!.)
 

  

My main problem has been my tomatoes...
They keep getting bigger and bigger,
but don't ripen.
Early summer was pretty wet,
so maybe they didn't get enough sunshine!

 
 
 
 



Anyway,

I got to thinking about the word "Produce".

One of the definitions I looked up stated,

"To bring forth yield".

 

So, I thought about my own life,

and wondered,

what kind of "yield" am I producing?

 

Jesus said in John 15:16 that He appointed us

"to go and produce lasting fruit."

 

Hmmm!

Something to think about!

 

 

Like last week,

I'm a little behind on getting Rock4Today posted,

but if the new one isn't up yet,

please check back later!

 

Thanks for your visit!

Opulent Orange...

 

 

 

I think I've had too much time to think this past week...

I haven't felt well, and have spent a lot of time in bed.

And one of the things I thought about was the color ORANGE.

Maybe it was due to consistent fevers,

or maybe it was because of Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Link-up

which will feature the letter "O" this week.

 

This is one of my favorite orange shots.
I've done a couple of posts on oranges before...
(Click here to see one of them.)

Although these banana peppers look red on this photo,
they were really quite orange.

Orange and red tee shirts seem to stand out from the rest.

Dated orange canisters...
(And yes, I still use them.)
 

Orange vests...



Orange is such a powerful color that it grabs our attention.
That's probably why the makers of Tide have been using it for years.

Then I thought about colors in the Bible,

and wondered which colors stood out.

I went to one of my favorite Bible sites,

Blue Letter Bible, to check it out.

Here's what I found, based on the King James Version of the Bible:

GOLD was the winner with being mentioned 417 times.

WHITE - 75 times

RED - 52 times

SCARLET - 52 times

BLUE - 50 times

PURPLE - 48 times

GREEN - 41 times

BLACK - 18 times

CRIMSON - 5 times

YELLOW - 4 times

BROWN - 4 times

(By the way, I couldn't find the opulent color of ORANGE mentioned...)

 

Gold may have been mentioned the most because of

the importance we give it in our lives,

but to me, the most important colors mentioned are found in Isaiah 1:18: 

"Come now and let us reason together, says the LORD;

Though your sins be as scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson,

They shall be as wool."

 

Now that's some cleaning power!

Stronger than TIDE!

 

 

 

Quite appropriately with my bout against sickness this week,

 my Rock4Today post is going to be on Jehovah-Rophe, Our Healer!



Norfork Lake

After several hectic days,
my husband suggested a little quiet boat ride on Norfork Lake
to bring a little peace into our souls.

He had just had the motor on the boat worked on,
and was anxious to see how it would run.

He opened it up,
and it purred like a kitten,
slicing through the calm blue-green waters
and making a beautiful wake.

There weren't a lot of people on the lake,
...maybe because it was the last weekend before schools reopened.

Our presence startled a grey heron into flight.

It gracefully flew just above the water
and found a perch in a tree.

All too soon we headed back to the boat dock,

...tied up the boat and headed back to shore,

...and thanked God for the abundant rainfall
that had replenished our lakes and rivers after the drought.

As we were leaving the lake area,
two fawns stood so still watching us
that it looked like they were just posing for a picture!

This past winter I did a post showing how low our lake levels were.

If you missed it and would like to see the difference the rain has made, click HERE!
Thank you to all of you who prayed for rain!

Thank you to Stewart for allowing me to link
with birders across the globe!
To see a gallery of bird photos, click on his name.

And, 

as always,

to see my latest Rock4Today post,

featuring the Names of God on Rocks,

click HERE!

The Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

Okay,

I'll try not to bore you with any more of our summer vacation photos after today!

This was the view of the Grand Tetons from our lodging place
at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

My daughter and her husband went for a short walk before
we ate dinner together at the lodge's restaurant.

I enjoyed checking out the wild flowers that grew in abundance.

 

This is the sunset view from our window.

 

I got up before anyone else to catch this sunrise photo.

The next day we were hoping to see some moose...

 

The signs said we should...



But instead we encountered more buffalo.

They raised their tails and ran off,
as we discussed whether they were called bison or buffalo!

But this is the only MOOSE we saw,
and obviously you can tell,
it wasn't a living moose.

The lofty mountains remind me of the majesty of the LORD,
and make me think of these verses from Micah 1:3-4:
"Look! The LORD is coming!
He leaves His throne in heaven
and tramples the heights of the earth.
The mountains melt beneath His feet
and flow into the valleys
like wax in a fire,
like water pouring down a hill."

Well,

thanks for coming along with me again!

I hope you enjoyed the trip!

To see my latest Rock4Today post,

click on Hebrew Names of God on Rocks!