Angels In Voice

We just wanted to write a post wishing all the Mothers out there a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! May your day be a special one, filled with God's love and blessings.  We've had another busy week of preparing for our benefit concert this coming Friday.  Mom mentioned this morning that by this time next week it'll be all over with.  We've struggled with some health challenges this week.  Crystal's asthma has been bothering her all week.  Wednesday afternoon she put in a call for our Pulmonologist, Dr. Radford.  Within an hour Dr. Radford called back and suggested that Crystal try taking 30mg. of Prednisone a day for 5 days.  She told me she thought the medicine was working because her lungs felt a bit better today.  On Tuesday, I went to the Dermatologist to have several little skin warts cauterized on the back of my right leg.  I have been seeing a Dermatologist for over a year for this problem.  It's basically because my immune system is suppressed and I can't fight them off.  It is very painful to have them removed, but it is worth it.  On Thursday I had a lot of pain in my leg and I had a hard time walking on it.  Mom told me my leg looked all swollen.  After I got out the shower and removed all the band-aids.  My leg looked pretty bad.  It was bright red and very irritated.  The band-aids weren't helping either.  So mom wrapped my leg with gauze.  We both felt that I needed to go back to the doctor if it wasn't better by morning.  We were concerned that I might have an infection and so I started taking 1,000 mg of Cipro that I had on hand.  I've had warts removed several times and have never really had a problem like this.  So we were worried about it.  When I woke up yesterday morning and took the gauze off, the redness had gone down and so had the swelling.  We figured that staying on the Cipro for a few days and keeping it wrapped would be the best thing.  Thankfully, my leg feels better and I am able to walk on it without feeling so much pain.  It's been a bit of a challenging week for both of us.  Tomorrow we will be singing at our church in the morning.  After church we have a booking at a care center in the afternoon.  It should be fun!  It's a blessing for us to minister in so many places.  We hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's day.  After the concert is over, we are going shopping with our mom to buy her a new outfit.  So we are looking forward to that.  We love you mom!!  Thanks for being such a GREAT mom, we don't know what we would do if you weren't a part of our lives.  You are truly an amazing, strong woman.  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO YOU!! 

You don't want to miss this one!

Click on Poster to enlarge 

Last week was one of the busiest weeks we've had in a long time.  We spent four days practicing our songs for the HPS benefit concert and for our booking at Sunnyslope Presbyterian.  We also spent some time with our friend Krystle last Monday.  We had dinner at Applebees and came back to our house and listened to an old tape of the original Little Women group ten years ago.  It was before Candice and I joined the group, and Krystle didn't join until a year later.  We also played her a few songs from our new CD, and she gave us a mini concert of songs she sings at her church.  It was so awesome catching up and talking about old times when we sang in Little Women together.   On Thursday we met at our Church with Paul, our church choir director.  We are working on a trio for the upcoming benefit concert.  The song Candice and I chose to sing is called "If Anybody Knows."  It is a beautiful song.  It has a bit of a black spiritual feel to it.  Our mom was in the other room decorating with the other women for our Ladies fiesta the following night.  So our dad called her in to listen to our song.  She told us that it sounded beautiful and that the three of us blend well together.  Paul has such a rich voice, which adds so much to the song.  We all love the harmonies and can't wait to sing it next Friday.  After we left the church,  we met with another good friend David.  David is the owner of Greater Phoenix Christian Chronicle.   He is a huge support to our ministry and he advertised the upcoming HPS benefit concert in both April and May's editions.  Our parents took us to meet him at Bill Johnsons for lunch.  We get together for lunch a few times a year to fellowship with him.  We had a great lunch and a wonderful visit.  He is a blessing to the two of us and our family.  We also spent some time practicing with our niece Jasmine last week.  Jasmine is 14 and has been a part of the benefit concert the past four years.  We're singing a trio together, the song is called "Every Move I Make."  It's a praise and worship song, and it fits her voice perfectly.  I taught her the harmony, and she picked it up in five minutes.  She definitely has a gift.  Candice and I gave her the lead in the song and we are just going to back her up in harmony.  It's a fun song and I think she'll do a great job on it.  Please come out and support us at this years concert.  It's next Friday May 16th at Thomas Road Baptist Church 5735 W. Thomas Rd. at 7pm.  Our parents outlined the program for the evening.  We have several guests coming to help us out this year.  We are praying it'll be a big success.

Friday evening was the fiesta at church.  The food was catered from El Pollo Loco.  We had Spanish rice, beans and their flame grilled chicken.  The chicken was very good.  We had sherbet for dessert.  Very yummy!!  Paul made a strawberry fruit punch that we were all so anxious to try.  He made it like a smoothie, it was very good.  I had two cups, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The fiesta was a lot of fun.  Our missionaries to Quito, Equator Jim and Sharon Smith were here for the weekend, and Sharon gave the message at the fiesta.  Her message was about how God can't use somebody who doesn't have a clean heart.  We must get rid of the dirt in our lives.  Her message really spoke to me, and I know it spoke to many others.  She is an excellent speaker.  

Saturday morning I woke up feeling horrible.  I was chilling, weak, and had terrible pressure in my head and I could hardly make it down the stairs.  When I finally did, I headed straight to the couch and told mom my head was pounding.  Mom gave me an Ibuprofen and within a half hour I started feeling better and my fever had broke.  I then started breaking out in hives all over my arms and legs.  The right side of my face was swollen around my mouth as well.  These were not just little hives, they were huge welts on my legs, it was awful!!  I took 50mg of Benadryl, and it didn't take very long for them to disappear.  I've never experienced anything this bad before.  Mom was on the phone with Aunt Judy trying to figure out what I had eaten that might have caused this allergic reaction.  They came to the conclusion that it was probably the strawberries in the punch.  I just recently became allergic to strawberries a few months ago, and I don't know why I didn't think about it before I drank the punch.   I usually only eat one or two at the most and I would still break out in little hives on my face, but nothing like this.  Now I know I can no longer handle them.  I spent the majority of the day in bed as I was exhausted after taking the Benadryl, my head was back to hurting and my fever had returned.  Mom took my temp around 5:30 in the evening and it was up to 102.  The highest it had been all day.  We were really starting to worry that we wouldn't be able to sing at Sunnyslope the following morning.  Dad left a message at the church explaining that I was sick and that we may not be able to make it.  I kept telling mom and dad not to cancel yet because I may feel better.  Candice and I really don't like canceling a booking, we will do everything to try and be there.  It was after six that night when Candice came in and told me I wasn't going to accomplish anything staying in bed.  She told me I needed to get up and start drinking water.  Well, I forced myself out of bed and downstairs to the couch.  After getting almost two glasses of water down, I started feeling better.  Sunday morning I woke up with a headache, but I was feeling better.  I was so thankful that we were able to minister that day after a rough Saturday.  I was still not feeling up to par and my voice was pretty raspy, but I did the best I could.  God got us through all five songs, and what a blessing it was.  Several people came up to us afterwards and said how much we inspired them.  Our friends Larry and Lora Root, travel with us.  Larry came up to us with all smiles, telling us how anointing our voices were.  He  knew that I wasn't at my best, but through God's power and grace we made it through.  We could feel the Holly Spirit in that place and as we sang we felt his gentle touch guiding us through each song.  It truly is amazing.  Thank you Lord for allowing us the opportunity to serve you.  You have given us so much and we pray you'll continue to use us to bring many more people into your kingdom.   

We apologize its been so long since we last posted.  Things have been very busy here.  We were gone a lot last week and when we were home we would practice or exercise, which didn't leave a whole lot of time for other things.  I did go for my CT scan a week ago Monday at the Mayo clinic.  It ended up being a longer day than we intended.   I had an allergic reaction to the Iodine contrast.  I always have to prep with prednisone and benedryl several hours prior to the test, but this time it didn't seem to hold me.  I'm always a bit nervous when they put the contrast through not knowing how my body will react to it.  My lungs started tightening immediately after the contrast was given.  I also broke out with a few hives on my neck as well.  I describe the symptoms I was having to the tech and he had a nurse in the room within seconds.  She had me take four puffs of Albuterol to open my lungs, but it made me feel so jittery and elevated my blood pressure.  The Albuteral made my lungs feel much better but left me feeling like I was running a marathon.  My heart rate shot to 137, which is extremely high.   I use Albuterol on a regular basis and it always makes me feel jittery and anxious.  I normally only take two puffs though.  So when the nurse gave me four, I knew that was a bit much.  I was taken to the nurse's observation room to be watched carefully.  I was given a bag of fluids interveiniously to help flush my system.  Mom and Crystal sat with me for the two hours it took to get my heart rate down to 130.  Since Dr. Mulligan was out of town that day, I already knew I wouldn't be seeing him.  The nurse decided to set up an afternoon appointment for another doctor to see me to make sure my heart rate and blood pressure was acceptable before going home.  They had a nurse with me, and as we sat  in the waiting room for my appointment, she asked if I felt two leiters of oxygen might help.  After seeing the doctor my heart rate and blood pressure were down.  I told him I was feeling alright and he told me if I started feeling bad, to go the ER.  It was most definetly a tiring day for sure, but by Monday night I was feeling a lot better.  I spoke with Dr. Mulligan on the phone last Thursday afternoon.  He said my CT scan looked good, and my tumor marker (Alpha Fetoprotien tumor marker) was 7.2 which is in the normal range.  So that was encouraging.  He did say he saw some increased patchiness on my liver, he wasn't for sure what it could be.  He said that he didn't see any new tumors, which is always a relief to hear.  He suggested I follow up with him in mid July.  He also said since I had a reaction to the contrast this time, that I'd have to start having MRI's done from now on.  I am glad it is over with for now and that I don't have to think about it for another three months.  Dad went for his bladder scope on Monday and he received a good report too.  Thank the Lord for the wonderful news he has given us.  Thanks to all of you who continue to hold our family in prayer.  We can't thank you enough!!  

Our family drove to Cottonwood to meet our new little addition to the family.  Our niece Danielle and her husband are celebrating the birth of their first baby, Austin Michael Lyons.  He was born Monday April 14th at 4:15pm.  He was a 8 pounds and 19 inches long.  We had such an enjoyable visit.  Our parents are officially GREAT GRANDPARENTS and Crystal and I are excited to be GREAT AUNTS!!  What an adorable baby!  We all took turns holding him and admiring him.  What a blessing it is to see God's beautiful creation!  Danielle & Mike Congratulations!!  We can't wait to see how big he'll be when we see you in four weeks.  

Crystal and I have been pretty busy the past two weeks.  We are enjoying our new CD, we listen to it and are touched by the message in each song.  We thank the Lord for allowing us the opportunity to record the third CD.  We have received many wonderful comments and it brings us joy knowing the songs are ministering to people.  We are also preparing for our 9th Annual Hermanksy-Pudlak Syndrome benefit Concert on May 16th at our church.  Please come out and support us this year.  Our goal is to spread awareness and raise a good amount for the HPS Network.  Since the conference, there have been three new people diagnosed with HPS.  The sad thing is that there are many others out there being mis diagnosed because their doctors don't know anything about this rare disease.  

Please be in prayer for me on Monday.  I go to the Mayo Clinic on Monday for my follow up CT-scan.  I have been feeling GREAT so I am praying my results will be good.  Dad goes for his bladder scope on the 28th.  So a week from Monday, please keep him in prayer as well.  We are all doing well and we are so thankful to God for keeping us going day by day.  Click on image to enlarge.