Tim's Top 10

Tim's Top Ten list of things he's thankful for. (In alphabetical order)


1. A beautiful Memorial Day weekend signals the unofficial start of summer!
2. Baseball tonight featured the Tigers trouncing the Twins 19-3.
3. Country style pork ribs for dinner on Monday! Can’t wait!
4. Doing well is Kristen and baby. Doctors said she’s a very healthy mommy.
5. Even Tim is doing well. Every three months it’s back to the doctors for a follow-up but no further treatment!
6. Finals for the Stanley Cup and the Red Wings are in it! (Currently up 2-0 in the 3rd!)
7. Got to do some registering for baby stuff at Target and will soon do some more at Babies R Us. (When Kristen’s not looking, I register for onesies that read “Party Pooper” and “Automatic Sprinkler.”)
8. Have to mention that the Pistons are in the Eastern Conference Finals (though the score tonight ain’t worth mentioning).
9. I am getting closer to finishing up my remaining schoolwork from the semester (which is good since I start summer school on Tuesday).
10. Just 5 full days and 3 half days of school left for Kristen!

Through the mundane, the trivial, the serious and the comical, God is and continues to be good.

Diaper Diaries Part 1

There’s more excitement at the Hill house! And it’s good news. The main woman of the Hill house, Mrs. Kristen Hill herself, is officially eating for two. Yes, we’re having a baby.

On April 22^nd, Kristen went to get acquainted with the Midwifery Center. And we got to hear the little heart beat. That little critter inside her tummy was jumping all around! In fact, the nurse had a difficult time trying to keep up with that moving heartbeat. For me, it was especially moving to hear that tiny little heartbeat and know that there was a real live baby inside of her!

And lately, that baby has been causing Kristen grief with her wardrobe. In fact, she was almost late to church last night because she couldn’t fit into her pants anymore. Poor Kristen. This evening she went shopping so she could add to her ever growing maternity wardrobe (no pun intended—hee hee).

God is good. And we’re grateful! Kristen is officially 14 weeks along on this Cinco de Mayo with a due date of November 2^nd!

Home sweet Home

Surgery has come and gone. Hard to believe it was a week ago today. And now...I'm home!

I was released from the hospital Sunday afternoon, sooner than anticipated. The doctor said that since I was able to hold down liquids, keep my temperature under control, and manage the pain, I could go home. What a happy feeling! No more IV machines. No more tubes. No more 4-hour vital checks. No more needles. No more hospital food! I was free to go home!

Previously to the good news about going home, we had more good news from the doctor. The report from the surgery--30 lymph nodes removed and ALL were cancer free! Praise the Lord! We'll take this report as more of God's kindness to us. It appears that with the successful surgery and this positive report, I may have come to the end of the line as far as further cancer treatment.

Thank you to all who have been praying for us. It is humbling to know that there have been many. And prayer works! We are especially grateful to a loving church body, through whom we have experienced and are experiencing God's love and care toward us.

Currently, I'm here on the couch taking it easy. For the next 6 weeks, the doctor says to stay away from strenuous activity (according to Pastor Kirk, that also includes dusting, vacuuming, and sweeping). And no lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk. Ah....It's good to be home.

You pick like a girl

She did it again. She beat me.

For the past few years, my friend Mikey has hosted an online tournament for March Madness as well as the college football bowl games. And each year I've carefully analyzed the matchups, agonized over my picks, and delivered a sheet that has fared...decently. Rather than having Kristen help me with my bracket this year, Kristen and I each made our own picks. And this year...my wife, who knows no other college team than Michigan State, has beaten me twice!

Last night as our brackets came to a grinding halt with victories from Memphis and Kansas (we both had UCLA winning it all), our final scores reflect 259 for her...248 for me. And while she'll finish around 37th and me around 41st (out of 72), that's still four places in front of me. But let's back up to the college bowl pick tournament a couple of months ago. After all was said and done I finished a respectable 14th. Not bad. Where did she finish? Number ONE!!! Yeah, not only did she beat me, she also beat out every other football enthusiast to win the tournament (and Mikey, we're still waiting on that dinner you promised).

But I'm really proud of my Cutie for doing well. It's fun to see her get so excited about games she would otherwise care less about.

So, maybe next year we'll go back to one bracket. And I'll be the one helping her fill it out.


(Yeah Michigan State.)

The Big Day

APRIL 9th.

The big day is scheduled. Early morning surgery starts at 7:30.

Surfing forward

Oh, those people at despair.com...they absolutely crack me up. The stuff they come up with.

Sometimes life feels like this. Can't say that we haven't wrestled through trying to make sense of things at times. However, it'd be a tragedy to view our circumstances as bad luck. I'll be honest, it's not always easy to hold on to a right perspective of things. When difficulty comes, I can only stare at the wave...my eyes can't see God's perspective. But if God truly reigns over His creation, then life's trying times simply can't be a misfortune. God rules! We're thankful that He has a plan and purpose for it all.

On Tuesday, our oncologist sat us down in the office and told us the news: tumor markings came back in normal range. (Yes!) Because it was an aggressive mixed tumor type and at stage two, there's still about a 40% chance that undetectable levels of cancer cells may have escaped into the lymph nodes. His recommendation: Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection (RPLND). This means that Tim gets to look into short term disability from work because he'll be needing some serious recovery time after this surgery.

Looks like it'll be next month some time. We'll continue to keep you updated. Thanks for praying!

Random Happenings

There have been a couple little things that have been fun additions to our home. Tim won a gift card at work for JC Penny. We were looking for some curtains for our living room, but the ones we were looking at were a little out of our price range. We checked the price of the curtains every time we went to the store. After winning this gift card, we went online to look at all of their curtains and actually liked these curtains better! We finally bought the curtains! We were so excited to order them, but then disappointed when they didn't have any in stock and had to wait a few weeks before getting them! Here's a picture of our new addition. We are so pleased with the new look! It's amazing how much curtains can add to a room!


The other fun addition was a surprise from Tim! I came home last week from school to see these happy flowers on the table! He had told me earlier that morning that he was going to throw away my roses from Valentine's Day. I definitely kept the roses much longer than I should have, and I kept asking Tim not to throw them away. He decided that since the old ones had to go, he would get me new flowers! He's so sweet! What a happy surprise!!