New use for our globe

Another Ethan funny (he is full of funniness!)

After he saw Daddy mowing the lawn, he wanted in on the action. Pretty soon we saw him zooming around the house with this:

He was rather hard to catch! I guess he has a rocket propelled mower! 

Little Chef in the making

So Ethan has a way of not taking "no" for an answer. I told him he would have to wait until lunchtime for someone to make him a pb&j sandwich. Well, that wasn't good enough for him. A few minutes later I heard some things being moved around and saw this:

on closer inspection:

needs to work on his coverage a little, don't ya think?

and maybe his cutting....

Well, at least he can take care of himself! :-) 

Funky Hawaiian flower

Brittany sent me this picture of a beautiful Hawaiian flower. I've never seen anything like it, but I love it! For those wondering how she is doing....she is doing great. She has been swimming everyday and went snorkeling yesterday. She had dinner last night at Benihana's and sent a picture of the plate.
She is having a wonderful time and seeing a lot of wonderful sites!! We can't wait to see all the pictures, and most of all, our sunshiney girl!!

My beautiful Hawaiian girl!

Her Triumphant Health

One of the things on my 101/1001 list was to write at least one poem a week. I haven't written any poetry in a long time so I decided I needed a little help. I got a refrigerator-magnet-esque program for my iphone called Poetik and wrote my first poem yesterday.

Here it is:

Her Triumphant Health

disease hunted her
strained us til withering.
forgoing my compass to fly into proof in the Utmost.
we praised when all still not well-
a novel meditation
to describe love's debtor.
and how my terms are not His.
that Love's remedy can be maddening
but winter grace-fully vanished
into our borrowed treasure.

What I Hold In The Palm of my Hand

As you know we took a trip to Kansas City this week for an appointment with one of Kaedra's doctors. Since Michael was on vacation, we decided to make it into an overnight trip and take the kids to do something fun. (not quite as good as Hawaii, but hey, we do what we can do! LOL!)

Travelling with a two year old is challenging. I had forgotten about that. It was a bit rough here and there and I might have gotten a wee bit stressed once or twice. I might have even said I would never go on vacation with a two year old again.

Tonight (technically this morning), safely back at home and back to normal, Ethan woke up and cried out. I waited for a few minutes and he went back to sleep. About ten minutes later he cried out again. This time he stopped crying and started calling out for me. I went in to check on him. What follows is our conversation....

"hi bubba"
"hi mama"
"are you okay?"
"yes"
"what do you need?"
"mama cuddles"
"ok mama cuddles coming up"

I took him out of his bed (a playpen), organized his blankies, pillow and animals and we laid on the floor together.

"cuddle mama."
"okay bubba"
wrapped my arms around him
"sing mama"
"okay bubba"
Sang to him and rubbed his back
"cold mama"
"okay, I'll get your blankies"
When I laid back down, I cuddled with him and his head rested in the palm of my hand. I am amazed that all this wild boy who seems like such big stuff during the day can still fit his head into my hand.

After a little more singing....
"ready for bed, bubs?"
"yes"

I put him into bed, wrapped his blankies around him, wound up his musical bear and kissed him.

"night night Bubba."
"night night mama"
"love you bubba"
"love you mama"

And as I shut the door,
"thank you, mama"

All in the palm of my hand...

Hard Decisions

Brittany (in the pink shirt) doing ministry in the park in Mexico last year

Wow. We had a hard decision come upon us today. For the past few years Brittany has gone on the mission trip with our church. She has loved it. She has had a missionary heart since she was 5 years old, so we knew that she would be heading in this direction. This year, our church is going to a new location in Mexico City. They are also taking an airplane. Because of trying to get the best deal on an airplane ticket, the decision about whether or not to go on the mission trip came about much earlier. We had to know by this week.

Of course when I heard about the mission trip, my first thought was excitement for Brittany. We have vowed to always try and let her go so she can follow the mission that God has given her. I even talked to the Youth Pastor and asked if she could still go even if we moved. I thought we would figure out SOME way to get her here, even if we were states away. Also, her cousin, my darling niece Sherria, was also going, which made it even more neat that they would be going together.

Michael and I had a talk about it and he expressed some concern over the trip. He wasn't feeling good about it. At first that sounded odd to me, being in the mindset that she ALWAYS will go on mission trips. Then I started listening to my Spirit. Today we got an email from our Youth Pastor telling us when the money was due and when we had to make our commitment. Immediately, I had total peace about the fact that she should NOT go. In fact, I had it on good authority (the Holy Spirit's) that he has something better planned for her. I felt bad (in the flesh) telling this to her. I hemmed and hawed a few minutes and Brittany interrupted me and said, "I am pretty sure I am not supposed to go on this trip." WOW. How blessed we are! Our daughter hears the Lord and is mature enough to follow Him, even when it is hard. I almost wanted to cry.

Isn't it silly of being proud of her doing what she is supposed to be doing? It is almost like giving someone a cookie for staying out of jail. But to have a daughter that hears the Lord AND obeys him is such a treasure. And I will rejoice in the Lord for her!

(and I can't wait to see what He has planned for her! HALLELUJAH!)

Recent Pics

Here are some recent pics from around our house and at our Mark 10:14 party. To see more pics of the party, check out my homeschool blog.

Wordless Wednesday

Big Happenings in our little world

Well, first of all, for all of those who have been praying, Michael got a new job!!
He was hired by Sam's Club and will be starting out as a developmental store manager. Basically he is a manager apprentice for up to 12 months. It is a program for people who already have lots of management experience but have not managed a Sam's Club before. He will probably start Tuesday.


Second of all, Kaedra turned 3 this week!! Yes, the child they said would never make it, never walk, never talk, never have any "quality of life" ran around and played musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey and helped three of her friends sing "Happy Birthday."


Brittany had an all-nighter at church this Friday night. They went to a concert of Thousand Foot Crutch, Toby Mac and Barlow Girl. Then they went to glo-bowl and afterwards headed back to the church to play games and watch movies.


On Saturday, we went to our homeschool group's Thanksgiving Feast. It was a lot of fun and we had some delicious food! Here is a pic of most of the kids there. (I had to take two pics to get them all in!)



Ethan is learning to walk around holding onto furniture. It seems like he went straight from crawling to cruising! He is getting so big. We are about to transition him to his crib for at least part of the night.


Our Mark 10:14 group went to the firestation this week and had a great fieldtrip there.


I am starting a Thanksgiving/Pilgrim unit study with Emily. We are both really excited about it! I have a bunch of things for the walls that I bought from a retiring teacher. I am going to decorate tonight while she is at church, to surprise her.


Today would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday. We lost her last year and she never did get her letter from the president. However, we know she is enjoying herself in heaven and would much rather be there. :-)


Michael and I are huge X-Files fans. In fact, it is about the only thing we agree about as far as TV. :-) A few years ago I bought him the entire boxed collection for some holiday. Unfortunately I bought it from some Hong Kong operation and the DVDs aren't all good quality. (Be careful what you buy on Ebay!! LOL) Anyway, for the past few months we have been watching through all 9 seasons of X-Files. We should be finishing it up this week. We also heard there will soon be a new movie out. WOOHOO!


I will write a separate post updating about Kaedra as soon as I can. (Ethan is screaming for some mommy time at the moment..)

Week's happenings

1. Kaedra is still not tolerating feedings. We have her up to 120cc every two hours at the moment. She got some kind of bug this week and has had a high fever since Friday morning. Because of the picc line, we had to take her in for bloodwork on Friday afternoon. She hasn't been feeling good, this time around. She is back on oxygen as well.

2. Brittany is in Mexico for her mission trip. She called twice on the way down and I will talk to her again this Friday. I can't wait.

3. Emily is learning to tie her shoes and is going further with reading. She is also becoming a great little helper for mommy.


4. Ethan has been fussy this week. Not really sure why. I think he may have had the same bug that Kaedy has. He has also wanted to nurse ALL night, so maybe he is having a growth spurt.

5. Our fourth of July celebration at church was awesome. It was a ton of fun! Sherria and I participated in a three-legged race and potato sack races. Although we didn't win either, we had lots of fun.

6. Michael had a meeting with his boss and it went very well. :-) Thank you for your prayers.

7. I haven't gotten anything done. Amazing how two weeks have gone by and I still have nothing to show for it. I guess I must be busier than I thought. :-)

Because their little armpits get so sweaty...

Brittany was getting ready for church camp this weekend and checking her list to make sure she got all her stuff. She came downstairs and, as she passed by, said "I need some bug deoderant."


After I picked myself up off the ground from laughing, I gave her a hard time for the rest of the day!


"Are they stinky or just sweaty?"


"How are you going to lift up their little arms?"


"Do they know they need deoderant, or do you just think they smell?"


When I dropped her off for camp, I MADE SURE to tell her counselor. I wanted Britty to feel right at home, so her counselor promised to give her a hard time for the duration of the trip. Isn't it good to know she won't be homesick. ;-)

The very raisin-ness of Ethan

There! did you catch that?

Hmmmm, let's try again:

Did you catch it this time? No?

Well let me explain.....

There is something very raisiny about Ethan. No, he isn't purple or wrinkled and he doesn't dance around to "Heard if through the grapevine" with sunglasses on. (although that would be really cute!)

He SMELLS like raisins! SMELLS LIKE THEM!

(I bet you forgot to scratch and sniff your screen above.
Go on back up, I'll wait.....


....

....


....

oh, do you not have that feature?? Well I promise, he SMELLS EXACTLY like a box of just opened raisins. Or maybe it is more like a pudgy, child hand grasping them on a hot summer day. Something in between those two)

And, no, I don't eat a lot of raisins. Or even grapes. And I don't drink wine.
It is a true mystery! This raisin-ness is all his own.

(and this will now go into the archive entitled "things to embarrass Ethan with later" surely to be pulled out when he has met his special someone.)

(unless he still smells like raisins, and then that could be a problem)

(unless he finds a special someone who LOVES raisins)

Pics of Kaedra in hospital

Thankful Thursday

I didn't plan on being so late in getting this out. I have so much to be thankful for and didn't want to wait until next week to write it all.

We have had a whirlwind week. Although it has not been fun, God's hand was evident in it throughout. I want to try to share it all with you. Some of it will be a repeat for those who have read all my updates, but I will try not to repeat too much.

Last week on Thursday, I noticed Kaedra had a sore on her back. I called our doctor but he did not call back. I was able to get an appointment with him, but not until the next afternoon. I was very concerned about it and didn't know if we should head to the hospital or not. People who do not believe in God would say the next part was "luck" or "a fluke." Jill from the Kansas City hospital called to see how Kaedra was doing post op. When I mentioned the sore on her back, she wanted her to come in right away. I am so thankful for her call and that she could get Kaedy in so soon. If we had waited any longer, Kaedra's hardware might have become infected and had to have been removed.

I am thankful that Michael's brother was able to, once again, head up to Kansas City with him so that I could stay home with the other kiddos. When they got there, they put Kaedy into ICU right away. She was only in ICU because she was on a vent. By the next morning, the pulmonologists and ICU docs said she did not need her vent. I am so thankful that we were able to get her off of the vent and she has been off of it for 6 days now. This is an incredible blessing when originally we couldn't even get her ON this vent because she had so many problems breathing.

I am thankful that Sherria offered to drive up to Kansas City with me on Sunday night so I didn't have to be alone. I am not very good at driving long distances, I tend to fall asleep. I was a little fearful of driving for 4 hours with just Ethan and me and she right away jumped in and said she would drive up with me. We had a great drive up there, too, filled with lots of laughing, lots of praising and lots of heart-filled talks about God. Ethan slept 3 hours of the trip and was such a good little boy!

I am thankful for my mother in law who came at the spur of the moment to take care of the girls for us for 4 days. She was supposed to have gone out of town the week before and didn't go because of a storm. She decided to postpone the trip when Kaedra went up to KC and she was ready and available when I called her a day earlier than she had previously thought. It was wonderful not having to worry about the girls, animals and house.

I am thankful for Michael's brother who paid for our hotel room for us and bought food for us so we didn't have to eat out all the time. I am thankful for the good nurses we had who tried to make our visit easier. I am thankful that when the doctor went in, he didn't have to take out much skin and did not have to take out her titanium rod. After the surgery, they took her to ICU, much to our disappointment. We had been told we could not take Ethan into ICU, so I was going to go in and visit Kaedra quickly and then head back to the hotel. When I went to sign in to ICU, they asked where Michael was. I said that he was with the baby. They said "The nurse said to tell you it's okay if you sneak your baby in." HALLELUJAH! We were ALL able to go into ICU for the 24 hours she was there. What a huge blessing to us.

On Tuesday, I had a horrible headache and Ethan started to fuss a little. There is nowhere to lay down in the ICU or waiting room (that is quiet during the day). The Ronald McDonald House has a wonderful waiting room in the hospital that they allow people to use when they have kids that are inpatient. They also have 7 beds that people can stay in overnight or use for naps during the day. I went down there and took a wonderful nap in one of their rooms for about 40 minutes. Ethan and I felt so much better after that. I am so thankful for their wonderful facility. They were also so very nice and sweet. They kept oohing and aahing over Ethan and how cute he was. They were so sweet about what a good baby he is. (And he really is! He was SO good while we were gone. He was happy and sweet and absolutely wonderful. Another huge thing to be thankful for.)

After she went back onto the regular floor, we got a wonderful nurse from Oklahoma. She contacted the social worker right away to try to get us into the Ronald McDonald House. She was the only person who had gotten any results for us! We had been told we would get out of the hospital on Wednesday and all of a sudden the floor doc told us that pulmonology wanted to see us on Thursday. We went into action and did two things. First we prayed, second we called our pulmonologist in Tulsa and got him to sign off on Kaedy coming home so that we could just tell them that we didn't need to stay. The other problem we were having was the Infectious Disease doctors wanted us to keep making trips up to KC for the next 4-6 months. We prayed about that and talked to our local pulmonologist about an ID specialist here. He said he had one and even better, the guy here has dealt with titanium rods before. Hallelujah!

On Wednesday morning, we packed our bags and loaded our car as if we were coming home. We had prayed the night before that we would be let go and we had friends praying for us as well. We decided we were going to Believe God and act upon it. We got to the hospital very early because we did not want to miss any of the docs. Thankfully, once they started rolling in, things went very quickly and very well. The surgeon said we were good to go home as soon as Kaedy got a PICC line. The ID docs said that after our initial visit next week, they will allow us to see a local doctor. (okay, that one didn't go compeletely smoothly, but I prayed as Michael talked and they "saw the light" HALLELUJAH!) Believe it or not, Pulmonology was NEVER mentioned that day at all. We kept expecting someone to call and say oops, Pulmonology still wants to see you tomorrow. I think we expected it all the way until we got in our car and drove away.

I know I am missing several things but this post is already very long. If you made it this far, thank you. :-) God is so good. So so good. We had many occassions to witness to our surgeon and I am praying for him to realize that Kaedra is not "lucky," as he likes to say. God also used Ethan as an opening in many a talk about His goodness.

We are so incredibly Thankful for so many things. I wish I could explain it all better but I hope I gave you enough of a (long) glimpse of how His hand was with us all week. I am so thankful for all of you that prayed with us. I mentioned you all more than once as being our prayer warriors and result-getters. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

To see other Thankful Thursdays, click here

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog

I'm baaaaack! Didja miss me??

My parents left yesterday after a wonderful visit. Ethan has been fussy the last two days and I have not been able to get online hardly at all! He is asleep in his carseat (fell asleep on the way home from church) so I thought I'd blog a little while I have the chance. Here are some pics from my parents' trip.

Swinging

I know I said I wasn't posting for awhile, but we are all ready for my parents and they aren't here yet so what better pastime than to blog??

Here are some pics from this weekend:

Blogging Vacation and prayer request

If it seems like I have fallen off the end of the earth in the next few days, it is because my parents are coming to visit and I will be busy having fun with them! I may have a chance to be around a little, but I don't know how much. I will see y'all next week!

oh, and as a side note, please keep us in your prayers. Ethan has been on a nursing strike for over 12 hours and has been screaming/crying about half of it. We are all frazzled, me especially, because I am also in pain from not nursing. Thanks!!

This is the verse I am standing on:
"For you will nurse and be satisfied
at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
and delight in her overflowing abundance."
Isaiah 66:11-12

update: about 5 minutes after posting this, he began eating and has been in a better mood all night! Thank you all!!

Ethan Montage

Happenings

We've had a nice few days. Sunday my neice, Sherria, took her grandma, her mom and me out for lunch at Applebees and then got us all manicures and pedicures. Can you say SPOILED? She made us all feel like princesses. It was her Mother's Day present for us and I really enjoyed the afternoon! Thank you, Ria!!

Tonight we had our homeschool "business" meeting. I haven't been to one since the beginning of the year so I really enjoyed seeing everyone again and meeting the newer people. It was fun and very relaxing; I am sorry it's the last for the year.

Brittany has been studying OK history for the past few months. I love the curriculum we are using. Cindy Downes, a local lady, wrote it and publishes it online. It is a very reasonable price and is chock full of great information. I am learning far more about OK history than I EVER knew about NM history! Brittany is finishing up the Plains Indians this week and we will move on to Railroads, Cattledrives, Cowboys and Outlaws next week.

Since we school year round, we are not nearing the end of our year as quickly as everyone else. We will finish up this school year the last week in July. The funny thing is our homeschool group has a wonderful year end program that we attend almost every year. The date of the program does not actually coincide with our year, so the girls get to "pretend" they are graduating a little early. Emily will even be wearing a cap and gown as she graduates from Kindergarten to 1st grade. It is always put on so beautifully and is so nice. It is one of my favorite things the group has.

Speaking of Emily, she is learning to tell time this week. What an exciting thing to learn! I think it is a big step in development. Before being able to tell time, things just happen at seemingly random intervals. Once you are able to tell time you are able to understand the structure of your day and even impose some kind of schedule of your own. That's a huge step! I think it is akin to potty training and reading.

Kaedra has been off her oxygen for 3 straight days. That's the longest she's been off since she got sick when Ethan was born. HALLELUJAH! She sucked on a some cheese puffs and a lollipop the other day, too. Baby steps, but we'll take them! She prays over all her own food. When you give her some she will speak gibberish over it and then say "Amen." She is such a little ham. She likes to keep us all laughing.

Ethan is really getting big. He has a pleasant disposition most of the time. He is very laid back. It's fascinating how even as babies, each child has their own personality. It seems their earliest personalities shed some light on what they will eventually be like. He loves to squeal and laugh. We frequently get sidetracked playing with him. Oh, but what a distraction! This time in his life will only happen once - I encourage the kids and Michael to play as long as he is willing. You will frequently find us in a circle around him trying to make him do a big belly laugh. He seems like he grew overnight. Literally one day his size 1 diapers fit, the next day he needed the bigger size! Same with his clothes.

Well, that's what's new in our life!