I'm ready for a vacation...

Joh 16:33 -
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Notice that He didn't say "in this world you might have trouble" or "you'll sometimes have trouble" He said "you will have trouble". But He also said that He has overcome those troubles and the world. During times like this I lean on the family and friends He has blessed us with and I try to carry His word with me each day as a source of strength. So, let me tell you about our last 2 weeks...

This is how it all started...
Thursday, April 10 - both of the girls woke up sick. AJ screaming about her ear hurting and EJ running a fever and fussing inconsolably. My plan had been to clean up the house for family arriving this weekend while the kids were at pre-school, but with everyone sick we spent the morning at the pediatrician's office instead. 4 hours, two pharmacies and $100 later we finally made it home to have some lunch and try to get the house soemwhat presentable before we had to leave to pick up BalticTiger and Howard at the airport. The kids went outside to play a little while I worked on the house, when suddenly...
I heard an ear splitting scream from the backyard. Those of you who are mommies will understand when I say that this was not the usual 'I fell down and skinned my knee' yell and I knew something was really wrong. As I started for the backdoor CJ ran in the house holding his head. He had blood dripping off his elbow and was yelling "my head is really, really broken". Seems the kid was playing "super heroes" and was throwing his metal shovel up in the air and then trying to run under it before it came down...
We took the girls across the street to a neighbor and headed to the local community hospital ED for some staples. Keep in mind every time I work in this ED it is very quiet and waits are minimal. But this time the wait was about 4 hours. Needless to say we didn't make it to the airport to pick up our family (thankfully the XO was able to do it) and we wandered back home about 11:30 PM with one very tired, very sore little boy with 4 staples in his head.

Friday, April 11 - Saturday, April 12 - a very long trip to Houston with 2 sick little girls to drop off the family for the BPMS150 (the XO promises he will blog about this soon!). No one slept at all that night in Houston and we returned home tired and grouchy. And in the meantime AJ's ear started draining some really nasty stuff. Stopped on the way home for ear drops, ibuprofen and tylenol and prepared for another sleepless night. Unfortunately, things didn't improve much after that...

AJ is now on her 3rd different antibiotic ear drops after 2 rounds of oral antibiotics and she's still not improving. They cultured the "yucky stuff coming out of my ear" and it's resistant to all antibiotics except 2. Hopefull the one we stared yesterday will work because we're almost out of options. And we've spent more time arguing with the insurance company about why we need more antibiotics and why we're using opthalmic (eye) drops in her ear than I can count. Why is the answer "because that is what the doctor ordered!" not good enough??

CJ's head has healed up, but taking the staples out was almost as difficult as putting them in!

We took EJ in for her 4 month check up and the pediatrician said "I think she may be allergic to milk" and told us to try her on Nutramigen formula (to the tune of $28 for a 16 oz can that lasts about 4 days) for a week to see if her rash and nasal symptoms would resolve. I told the XO on the way home that as much as I wanted her to feel better, I almost hoped that it wouldn't help since the thought of paying about $350 a month for formula was terrifying...
But, "when it rains, it pours" and she is very obviously allergic to milk. After 5 days on the Nutramigen her rash is gone, she has stopped crying after every feeding, her cough and stuffy nose are gone and she's sleeping through the night. I keep joking that I'll have to take the cost of her formula out of her college fund, but I know that God will provide for our every need and I have no anxiety over it.

And, it continues to pour around our house. I found out last week that we're expecting baby number 4 at the end of the year. Then on Saturday I stared having some bleeding and severe pain and went to the ED where they told me that there was some bleeding behind the placenta and I needed to see my OB on Monday. Well, I had finally reached a place of peace with the idea of having a 6 year old, a 3 year old, an 12 month old, and a newborn and was truly embraching God's plan for our lives and I could not understand why He would possibly take this little baby from me when I had just gotten excited about his/her arrival. But I prayed my way through the weekend and I am blessed to be able to praise God and report that my OB feels that everything will be fine with this pregnancy. BTW, his/her due date will be around December 11th....

There was much more that happened during the last couple of weeks that was stressful for our family, but in the big picture none of it really matters. We'll continue to seek God and His will for our lives and rely on Him.

Love to all of you from sunny Central Texas!

Springtime in Texas!

We're enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the explosion of wildflowers here in Central Texas right now. It's the perfect time for walks around the neighborhood lake and just enjoying our yard!

The XO loves roses so our yard is filled with them. These are a few of the early arrivals this year. I love the Texas antique roses! You can't kill them even if you try...

Our budding photog CJ gave himself an assignement during one of our recent walks - "I'm going to take pictures of as many different flowers as I can find". These are just a few of the pictures he took that afternoon.

Georgie the Giraffe

Getting Dad's bike fixed at the bike shop

1LT CJ's pre-school class has a mascot (Georgie the Giraffe) who goes home with a different kid each week. The kids all take pictures of themselves with Georgie and then write about their escapades in the class journal. I was amazed at how much CJ was willing to write in the class journal since handwriting is not one of his favorite "subjects" (basically if it doesn't involve math he wants very little to do with it. His comment today was "If I do ten pages of math can I just skip phonics?")
The XO had the brilliant brainstorm of adopting this idea into our homeschooling, so we're going to be starting our own journal with one of our family's stuffed "friends". When you think about it, they can learn an awful lot with this seemingly simple project - photo composition (which ones are the best pics to include); summarizing thoughts (by choosing a heading or caption for the pics); handwriting (even if it is very simple sentances); early writing skills, grammar and punctuation (as they dictate their report on the events to mom and dad to record in the journal); and counting (as they number the pages); not to mention all the learning that happens on the adventures that get recorded!
I don't know who is more excited about this plan, mom or the kids!

Exploring the Llano River

Helping to feed the birds

Enjoying the backyard playscape

Never Trust the Weather Forecast

We decided to take a family trip to Llano, Texas this past week to enjoy the scenery and do a lesson on geology with the kids. Being the good planners we are, both the XO and myself checked the weather report before we left. Sunny and 80 degrees, with a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms it said. So, dressed in shorts and t-shirts we headed on our merry way. As we neared our destination, we noticed that the wind had picked up and there were some very dark clouds looming. When we finally pulled into Llano it was raining and the thermometer stood at 55 degrees. So the weather forecast was only off by about 25 degrees, some rain and a lot of wind! We made the best of it by putting on the extra shirts we had brought along and bundling everyone up as best we could. We still enjoyed the rock collecting and the scenery, but the ladies of the family ended up in the truck after about 30 minutes because EJ was crying and AJ kept saying "I'm freezing so much!" The intrepid boys kept hiking along the river and taking pictures for a little while longer. At the end of the day we were frustrated that the weather had not cooperated, but still glad that we had made the attempt to have a family adventure...