Merry Christmas!

Almost definitely my favorite time of year. Can't wait till Wednesday when we make the drive up to NorCal for Christmas festivities with family. I doubt I will post while we're up there so Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! ;) May you all have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Lord. xoxo

Christmas tree 2009 and little Holly, our early Christmas present, under the tree hehe

Chase Ryan

Welcome to the world Chase Ryan Clarke! It's crazy to remember Kaylee this small and to watch how fast they grow up! Congratulations to our dear friends Daniel and Kristin - we love you guys!

Big sister time

Cherry Wedding

A few weeks ago my college roommate and dear friend Rebekah Burbage married the perfect guy for her. I was blessed to interpret the wedding and get a front row seat to the nuptials. Congrats to Luke and the new Mrs. Cherry! The Lord is going to do wonderful things in your life together. xoxo

A new addition

A couple months ago we decided to take the plunge into parenthood - with a puppy. Okay fine maybe it's more like a dip. into a puddle. But it has satisfied my need for something to mother for now while Matt works on his doctorate. She is absolutely adorable and keeps us laughing and on our toes. She weighs in at exactly 3 lbs, the perfect size for our little condo. The best part? She's an excellent snuggler - her and I have fallen asleep many a night on the couch while Matt works tirelessly in the office on his homework.

Holly on her first day home :)

Knee Update

For all of you who are curious as to what has happened with problems with my knee in the past months...

The injections that started with the appearance on The Doctors lasted for 6 weeks but were, in the end, unsuccessful. After more physical therapy and no improvement my doctor wanted to go in and take a look. June 30th I had arthroscopic surgery that discovered all the problems! I had a 20% tear in my ACL that had resulted in a blood clot lodging in the area, damaged cartilage behind my knee cap, and an inflamed gland (the ones that produce joint fluid - I forget the name). My doctor was able to remove the blood clot, shave off the crummy cartilage and remove the problematic gland. My ACL is still stable, slightly less so that my right, but nothing that should be a big problem.

Now, after 4 more months of physical therapy - I'm FREE!!!!! I have been discharged and am seeing a huge difference as I am able to get back to my normal routine and the things I enjoy. Matt and I went hiking last weekend, which was somewhat short lived as I still have to build up the knee muscles - but it was so nice to even be out there!

Thank you all for all your prayers and support. It's good to be back to the active world :)

The Great Outdoors

We had a wonderful time this summer going camping with our best friends Daniel and Kristin and their daughter Kaylee. Since this was in September and Southern California weather is usually quite WARM 12 months of the year - we didn't quite expect so much CHILL. Despite all of the adults not sleeping well due to the cold the first night (Kaylee wasn't phased at all haha) we had a very relaxing time of just being out and enjoying God's beautiful creation and the wonderful company of friends.

The guys wanted to try fishing at the local lake - let's just say it wasn't too successful ;)

Kaylee did enjoy the worms though - not sure how many died while she was "enjoying" them hehe...
I don't think Matt will ever try fishing again - his poor worms kept falling off
But the view was GORGEOUS!!!!

They did such a good job building this great fire set-up for later, which Kaylee knocked down before later arrived - at least she didn't try to play with it when it was lit....

Our campsite!
There was a town about 30 minutes away so one evening we decided to drive in and enjoy the goodness that is Schat's bakery. If you have never been here and at some point in your life end up in Bishop, CA - GO!

Long time coming

Hello friends,

I have to first off apologize for the lack of posts the past few months! I haven't been too good at keeping you all in the loop huh? Well I'll try and catch you up on as much as I can and now that my schedule has slowed down a bit at work after the crazy "end of semester" rush, I hope to be more faithful at blogging over the holidays.

I have to start with our trip to NC/TN back in June. We had an amazing time!! Tennessee became one of my favorite states after this trip. The people are so warm and friendly. Life is laid back and you aren't in the "big city rush" that I sometimes feel we get caught up in here in LA. The rush that just ends up in you being behind on everything and feeling like you're constantly playing catch up. After 3 days in TN we drove out to Matt's grandparents place in Murphy, NC, just over the TN/NC boarder. We spent the rest of the week there spending time with family (Matt's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and kids). Most of these people I had never met before because they were unable to make the trip out for our wedding, so it was a wonderful time of "getting to know you." Here are some pictures of our time.

This is the inside of one of the shopping centers in Franklin, TN...how cute!

We had to go to the Grand Ole Opry - and Montgomery Gentry was inducted! <3 country music

One of my favorites - I think we went 3 times while we were there - Cracker Barrel please come to California!!!

This was at a cider bar - yes that's right like apple cider. They had EVERYTHING apple, even apple cider doughnuts which were really yummy :) Just so quaint...this was right next to our hotel.
The Himsey grandkids with grandma and grandpa
The Himsey "kids" with Mama and Papa Himsey
Uncle Pete and Auntie Joanie - love you guys!!!
My dear husband....lol
The cousins went out for the night to hang out - Happy Birthday BJ!

I'm legit, part II

Hey everyone. Matt here. Just wanted to let you all know that I passed my test and am now a Sports Clinical Specialist (SCS)!! This is quite exciting, as I took the test in March, and waited until last week to find out the results. They actually came in while we were on vacation (figures) in NC/TN (another post). I'm excited because this is what I imagined doing since I was 16 and realized I wasn't going to be playing basketball in the NBA. ;) Anyway, to quote my wife, "I'm legit!"

Matthew Himsey, PT, SCS
Board Certified in Sports Physical Therapy

P.S. More convincing proofs coming soon, as well as the promised NC/TN vacation post.

Convincing Proofs, Christ is God

As previously mentioned, I have been having many conversations with a patient of mine who is a Jehovah's Witness. From my understanding, they believe that Jesus is an angel that God commissioned with the task of saving the world from their sin through His death. I have been taught from as far back as I can remember that Christ is God, though I had no convincing proof of this until I started searching for myself. Now, I can't help but notice proofs on almost every page of Scripture. Let's get started on the first one that jumped out at me. Keep in mind these are not the thoughts of a trained theologian, just a layman who is making some observations on the text.

Mark 1:2-3 - "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You; who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."'"

Here, Mark actually quotes 2 OT passages: only one being from Isaiah's book (Is. 40:3). The other is from Malachi 3:1. Apparently it was common custom when using several quotes to lump them together under the name of the more prominent prophet. In some translations, it is rendered "As it is written in the prophets," which is probably more literally correct. For further clarification, and proof of Christ's deity, let's view these 2 passages followed by my uneducated observations.

Malachi 3:1 - "'Behold, I am going to send My messenger and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the LORD of hosts."

Observations
1. God is going to send a messenger. This messenger is sent out to prepare the way for the one who follows him. Each of the four Gospels clearly verifies this messenger to be John the Baptist (Matt 3:3, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4-6, John 1:23).

2. This messenger is going to prepare the way for God. The end of verse 1 clearly identifies that Jehovah is the one speaking these words and He uses the personal pronoun, "Me" to describe the identity of the person who's way the messenger is preparing. There is an apparent disagreement with the interpretation of this passage that Mark gives us as he says, "who will prepare Your way." So we are left with 1 of 2 options: either Mark is wrong to interpret this passage to Christ and therefore the entire Bible is not trustworthy, or Jesus is God.

Isaiah 40:3 - "A voice calling, 'Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the dessert a highway for our God.'"

Observations
1. As previously stated, all four Gospels agree that John the Baptist is the prophesied messenger, the "voice calling." In John 1:23, John the Baptist identifies himself as the "voice" in this passage.

2. Who is it that the "voice" is preparing the way for? "Clear the way for the LORD (Jehovah/Yaweh)...for our God." Unless God came to the earth, there is no need to clear the way or make a path for Him. In other words, Jesus has to be God in order for this passage to be true.

Whenever we see LORD in capital letters, it is the Hebrew word YHWH, which in all honesty (from my research), we really have no idea how to accurately pronounce. YHWH also happens to be God's name. Some say it should be pronounced "Yah-way" and others "Jeh-hoe-vuh." For our conversation it doesn't really matter, other than we know that it refers to God by name.

It seems clear from these OT quotations that John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for YHWH. But the NT clearly identifies that John the Baptist knew that his mission was to prepare the way for Christ. Contradiction in the Scriptures or verification of Christ's deity? I'm going with the choice that seems most likely - the choice that doesn't force me to throw away my Bible.

I'm Legit!!!!

Hey all!!!!!! You will see lots of exclamation marks in this here post because I just passed my National Interpreter Certification with Advanced!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I've been ADD all day cuz I'm way too excited! God is so good! Going out with friends tonight for a nice big slice of the famous Motherload chocolate cake from Claim Jumpers!!! Off to dinner! Much love!

Jaymee Himsey
NIC Advanced

;) hehehehehehehehehehehe

Convincing Proofs

Hey all, Matt here. Over the past several months, I have been having some interesting discussion with a patient of mine (thanks Azneef, if you're somehow reading this) who is a Jehovah's Witness. We've been going back and forth on a lot of things that are not critical, however, one conversation keeps coming up. That conversation is over the deity of Christ. Because of these conversations, I have read through some of the material provided to me by my patient, but mostly, I have just been reading the Bible and have found a series of Biblical passages that prove (to me) that Christ is indeed God. My goal is to type these out in hopes of sharing them with you. I'm planning to share them so that I can make sure I have a good grasp of the knowledge that I think I have, and hopefully you can help me out. I plan on calling this series "Convincing Proofs." My goal is to post the first one within a week. Keep me on task! Convincing Proof number 1 will come from Mark 1:2, so check it out, see what you think, and meet me back here in a week for some discussion.

Airdate

Hey all! We are on our way to MEXICO! Not to worry we've heard its fairly safe as long as we use our common sense - which we plan to do. We will have lots of pics to share when we get back, but just wanted to let you know too that the Doctors show with my knee being stuck will air Tuesday April 21st 11am on KCAL 9 here in Los Angeles. If you're somewhere else in the country or state check their website thedoctorstv.com for a schedule for your area.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Adios y hasta luego!

you want me to do what??

What do you think when your doctor calls you on your cell at 8:30pm? "What's wrong??" Yeah that was my first thought too! Well apparently the answer is nothing. Nothing has changed in the plan to inject my knee with Supartz. The insurance company wouldn't approve Synvisc - but its basically "toe-mae-toe" "toe-mah-toe" as they say. Same thing - different name. But now they want to do it in a tv studio in Hollywood instead of in the Burbank doctors office. After I got over my stuttering "wha-wha-me-what?" I figured it might be fun... My doctor had gotten a call from the television show The Doctors requesting him to return to the show as a guest once again. He was also asked to bring a patient - that would be me! So this morning we had a camera crew in our little condo (man they brought a lot of equipment) to do an "in-home" interview clip type deal. I was soooo incredibly nervous but it went pretty well. I don't feel like I do well in front of any sort of audience and this includes camera-men and field producers. An hour later they decided they had enough footage for a less than 60 second clip! WOW.

Friday morning I report to the set at 6am. Yup. 6am. But I get to have my hair and makeup done! Woot! I'm just worried that I'll start crying on tv from the pain of a 4-inch long needle injecting some goopy stuff into my knee - lol. I'll let you know how it goes and when you can catch my one and only chance at stardom bahahahahaha.

Look for it:

He's back!!

My hubby that is... He never really went anywhere but it felt like it. He's been studying so hard for his Sports Certification Specialty test that I often spent entire Saturdays with girlfriends. While I thoroughly enjoyed those times (and ended up with some cute additions to my wardrobe and some yummy baked goods!) I missed spending weekends cuddling with my hubby in the middle of the day. So lucky to have married the most amazing guy this side of heaven. LOVE YOU HONEY!

Inject me!

Update!!

I'm kind of excited - I just scheduled my first knee injection! And I'm already looking forward to some improvement! Lord willing...haha. After an MRI and some more doctor visits they determined that there is some damage or a defect in the cartilage in my left knee. So some Synvisc shots will hopefully get some medication and nutrients in there to allow the cartilage to regenerate and heal itself. First shot of three is Wednesday. All I can say is...once I'm better who's up to train for a marathon with me??? I cannot wait to put on my sneakers and just be able to run. WHOO!

Prayer Request

Hello all,

I feel a bit selfish asking for prayer on here, but perhaps that's just my pride. I'll just give you an update on what's been going on with my knee. I've been very frustrated lately with the pain that I've been having for the past year and a half. I've been going to physical therapy for almost a month now and the knee pain seems to only be getting worse. My therapist has limited my motion to hopefully decrease the pain, but this just leaves me helpless, slow, and more frustrated. It takes me twice the normal time to walk down stairs, I can't twist in any way, and bending my knee has to be done with care. It's a lot to think about all the time and forgetting leaves me in pain. Most nights when i get home it is just easiest to lie down and have Matt pile ice on my knee and leg. The inactivity is driving me bonkers! I can't workout, I can't walk down our front stairs, I can barely even shave in the shower without hurting myself. I just want it to end. I suppose the Lord is trying to teach me patience and dependance on Him. Its funny how we take such simple things for granted, and how much those things hurt when something goes wrong! I didn't know how good I had it :) I'm currently being treated with electro stimulation and iontophoresis (basically lots of wires and magnets driving in medication). There has been mention of cortisone shots, but that probably won't be for a while and only after some more doctor visits.

So anyway...if you would pray for my silly frustrations. That I would be able to be patient and do as the doctors think best. That I would trust that the Lord controls all things - even the ligaments and muscles in my knee - and trust in that.

dear friend

I have such wonderful friends. My birthday fell on a Monday this year. A Monday that also happened to be Martin Luther King's birthday... so I had the day off. While that was really neat, my hubby did not have the day off. I was honestly feeling down about spending the day alone before Cassia insisted on spending all her spare time between classes with me. She is so darling. Not only that - our doorbell rang at 7:45 and...lo and behold!... muffins and a chai latte on our doorstep as she tried to drive away before we saw her (not quick enough :) ) We had a great time exploring downtown Newhall and all the neat little shops that are tucked away on nearly every block! Who knew our little corner of Santa Clarita had so many cool places??? We ate at a little hole-in-the-wall cafe that was WONDERFUL! Family owned and everything made from scratch... it doesn't get better than that. Then found this amazing store... every time I drive by it now I'm tempted to stop. Luckily for my husband I've been able to resist.

Dearest Sia, thank you for spending the day with me. You are such a blessing to me and a wonderful, wonderful friend. LOVE YOU!

good oldies

In the past two months or so I've found a few really neat antique shops around Santa Clarita that I've been wanting to visit. Well Cassia and I went to one for my birthday (which my computer is not letting me upload the pictures from) and then just this last week my sister and I went to another one in which we found some of the neatest things! A few of which made their way home with us :) I forgot to take a picture of the awesome binoculars that she bought - next time. But here's what I came home with...

A Tour for Mom

My mom still hasn't seen our place since it was stacked with boxes the week before our wedding so there are for you Mom.... I'll keep you updated on how the wall turns out :)

MoMo on ice!

   Before you think I'm crazy - MoMo = Mollee my sister. When she came to visit we went ice skating and had a GREAT time. I haven't been ice skating in at least two years and although we didn't last long and the line to get hot chocolate afterward was ridiculously LONG, it was the coldest I've ever been in LA. And that was cool! I miss cold rainy days for months on end. Days where you could curl up in front of the fireplace and read a good book all day long because going outside meant being drenched by the torrential downpour. While it was wet and cold, you couldn't help but love the sound that it made as it clattered against the windows and beat down on the roof. So comforting. You people who live in cities or states with seasons, be very very thankful. Trust me - constant sunshine and hot weather DO get old. I wish that cold spell that we had would have lasted longer, but it was great while it lasted. And now if anyone wants to come visit - we're in the 80's. 

fit fit fit!

So I've always been one of those people who says they want to work out consistently, who every now and then will commit to a workout only to 3 weeks later be utterly bored. I and my knees can't stand running and so I've had to give up soccer until further notice. So while at work I googled a new fitness routine in hopes that maybe this time I would be able to keep it up, and I made a huge discovery!! There's an entire television channel, hosted by Discovery actually, that's devoted to workouts and good eating! So needless to say after work I ran home and frantically searched our cable guide. Lo and behold! Channel 171! Workouts of every different size, shape, length and intensity at my fingertips. 24/7! Plus regular healthy cooking programs which is a big bonus. I love cooking but it is a bit difficult to find things that are actually healthy that my "meat and potatoes" "salad-hating" husband will go for. I have yet to actually watch the cooking shows but for the past 5 days I've been working out - something different each day! I'm sore - but happy.

For any others who suffer from fitness routine boredom - give it a whirl! Fit TV

Happy sweating :)

cookies o' sugar

Just 3 things:
1. so fun...
2. the kids were adorable...
3. and the cookies were YUM!!

Lisa's boyfriend cookie

Sid!

Kaylee's masterpiece!