I know...I know....

....I've been a bad blogger lately! :( Sorry! No excuses 'cept normal life keeping me going-going like the energizer bunny! teeheehee. And come the end of the day, blogging is not exactly forefront in my mind. Just think of me as taking a little blog-cation! :) Oh! And speaking of vacation....we will be taking our first road trip as a family of four this weekend! (Our first time sleeping all together in a hotel room too! Pray for us!!!) LOL!! We're heading up to northern California for a Super Bowl get together with Ty's good friend Fred and his wife Suzanne! It's been in the works for some time now....the party is actually an annual 'thing' Fred does, but we haven't been able to make it since Luke was just a tad over a year old! So we were bound and determined to make it this year. All of us!

So off we go tomorrow afternoon! A SEVEN hour drive should be interesting with the kids, but with nap time and a borrowed dvd player, hopefully things will go smoothly! We're just praying for no traffic! Last time, it took us a whopping 11 hours to get there because of a toxic spill on the I-5! We'll be back late, LATE Sunday night (we're leaving right after the Superbowl). We're looking forward to a fun weekend! And for those of you wondering about little Miss Tess....have no fear. It's Meemaw to the rescue! She'll be dog-sitting here for us this weekend!

My big sis Kim will be arriving in a few hours too and will be in town for the next week, so we are most definitely looking forward to that as well! Luke's been counting down the 'night-night's' until Aunt Kim arrives! He did a little 'score' motion this morning and screamed "yesssssssss!" when I told him today was the BIG day! He can't wait to see her! Either can we! We'll pick her up from the airport right after preschool!


So....off we go for a few days! I'm sure I'll have some pics and stories to share when we get back!


PS.......oh and by the way...thanks for praying for our sickies! We're still struggling with the coughs and conjestion (I've even done a few breathing treatments on Ellie), but I guess I'm just resolving myself to the idea that it will be awhile yet! I'm starting in with another scratchy throat as of last night. :(

Friday musings....

So I'd like to be able to post today about how we are all feeling so much better 'round here, but unfortunately, that is STILL not the case...MUCH to my dismay. :( And I'm beginning to think we are just going to be sick in one way or another until spring. :( At-least it feels that way, anway! I'm frustrated. Luke, on one hand, is doing much better...thankfully. He has been fever free since early in the week, but continues to hack and cough quite a lot. We kept him out of school on Tuesday, since we were not 100% sure if he was contagious or not, and we debated on keeping him out again on Thursday, but ended up sending him after all when he awoke on Thursday morning seemingly improved. But just yesterday, while Ellie and I were spending some LONG AWAITED time visiting with Laura and Maddie, Ellie began with a productive cough, :( She was kinda 'barky' last night and today seems out of sorts...crying, whiny and just overall NOT a happy kid. :( And just to add insult to injury, Ty came home from work today with another scratchy throat and general malaise. Good grief! When will this all end?! One or all of us have been sick continuously since Dec. 17th!!!!

I'd be lying if I said that this week has been an easy one for me on the parenting front. Luke has been quite a challenge for me this week...mostly because I think he hasn't felt well. He's been whiny and overly sensitive and quite disrespectful! :( Some of it is normal 4-year-old stuff, but I'm pretty sure the rest of it is a combination of feeling crumby and the lack of his normal routine with school and friends and fun! It amazes me just how important school has become to his little spirit! We have a very different Luke when he gets his two days a week at school. He's happy, positive, polite and generally pleasant. BUT...without those few hours of school time, he begins to get naughty and irritable. I can tell simply in the amount of discipline (ie timeouts, privileges taken away, etc) he has received this week! And then, to add to his crabbiness, Ellie is now not feeling well and is a little fuss-pot. :( Momma needs a break!!!!!

BUT...in the spirit of going against those crabby feelings that are lurking around my own heart, I will share some cute pictures from the last couple of days of moments where my kids were happy, and sweet and scrumptious! These are the faces that makes my mommy-heart happy...

And here are a few more quick shots from our time at Laura's house on Thursday. Not quite sure how it is that we live a short 15 minutes away from one another but only manage to see eachother once in a blue moon! (We talk nearly every day though!) But oh how I LOVE seeing Maddie and Ellie playing together! Being just 5 1/2 weeks apart in age, they are destined to be lifelong friends....just like her momma and I! They are so active now though, that trying to get any photos of them together was like trying to photograph lightning! LOL! They had fun together! Maddie even greeted Ellie at the door with a big, smooshy hug! She's is such a sweetheart!

Aren't they getting BIG?!


(((hugs)))



Rocking and singing in Maddie's room...


Just for reference, this was them almost exactly one year ago! This one was taken the week of Jan. 15th last year!




Awww...happy things! :)

So if you would, friends...will you say a little prayer that somehow our family would kick whatever this lingering, annoying bug is that we've had in one form or another for so long? Prayer changes things, right? We need out of this sickie-cycle!!!

What's with the fevers??

Luke came home Thursday from school with a fever. And while that's not too big of a deal in and of itself, I had to shake my head when, after his nap that afternoon, the fever had climbed to a whopping 103.4! My, my......my kids just have this thing for HIGH fevers, it seems. When I asked him if he felt sick anywhere, he said "my thwoat feels sick." So, we changed him into jammies, got him cozy on the couch with a video and made sure he rested. Motrin helped too! Once the Motrin kicked in, he was a different kid...happy...talkative, playful. Yay!
Friday morning he did well, as long as the Motrin was still on-board. We even got to go play at the park for a little while and he was happy to run, climb and swing. He didn't feel warm, so I figured the fever was a fluke. BUT....much to my surprise and concern, he awoke yet again from his nap with bright pink cheeks, bloodshot eyes and a fever again of 103.9! I peeked at his throat with a flashlight and when I saw white splotches back there, I was on the phone with the pediatricians office quickly. To my amazement (and a lot of great timing!) I was able to schedule a last-minute appointment with a doctor who works with Dr. Mailander at 4:20, so off we traipsed to the doctor's office.

Poor Lukey was SO, SO, SO hot and just felt all-around miserable. He cried softly in the car on the way over (which is so unlike him!) and clung to my side, resting his head on my leg while we checked in. I haven't seen him feel so badly in quite some time! They did a quick strep culture, which came back negative, but with the fever so high and the long weekend approaching, the doctor opted to treat him with antibiotics rather than risk us needing a trip to Urgent Care over the weekend. (Which of-course I was thankful for, since our last urgent care visit was so horrible!)

Dinner time came and went, he got his first dose of the antibiotic and he appeared to be feeling better as long as he had plenty of ibuprofen in his system. But silly Mommy and Daddy put him to bed and neglected to remember that he was due for more ibuprofen around 10pm. At 11:15 last night, just a short time after we both had gone to bed ourselves, we were awakened by frantic cries from Luke's room. I ran down the hall to him knowing that that particular cry wasn't a normal one and found my sweet boy literally BURNING UP in his bed. He was a little dazed and frantic...almost like he wasn't fully awake yet, but he was screaming. I got him to calm down and once I took his temperature it revealed a heart-stopping 104.8!!!! Yes...you read that right. 104.8!! I immediately called for Ty, stripped Luke down to his boxers, got cool compresses ready and more Motrin in him. Oh my goodness! I've never seen a fever that high in one of my kids!! I was so worried! We knew that we needed to cool him, but opted for no clothes, cool compresses under his arms and on his head and a Popsicle rather than a tempid bath in the middle of the night (we figured Ellie would wake up too, with all the commotion next to her room). And thankfully, after about a half hour, the Motrin began doing it's job and the cooling measures began to work. His temp. dropped down to 103 and then I think to 101. Phew! I slept (if that's what you can call what I did) beside him for several hours to be sure that he was alright and THANKFULLY the rest of the night was much less eventful! We woke him near dawn for his next dose of the Motrin and by morning, he seemed much better. Still not 100% better, but willing to play and be silly with resting in between. But MY GOODNESS! What a scary kind of night! And really.....what's with the fevers??! Just hoping that antibiotic kicks whatever it is that's ailing him!

Promotion Sunday

This past Sunday at church was Promotion Sunday for the Sunday school classes. All the kids who have turned a year older and needed to promote to the next class moved up together. So, along with his preschool and church buddy Jesse, Luke promoted into the 4 &5 year old class with Ms. Sonia. When he came out of his class after church, he was beaming! With his very own little bible in hand and a treasure from the treasure box (all supplied by Ms. Sonia), he began telling us ALL about his new class, how much he LOVED his new bible and about all that he had learned that day! It was so precious to me! Especially since he rarely has spoken much of his Sunday school class in the past, except to show us what picture he colored that morning or whatever. He clung to that little bible the whole way home, looking down at it in his car seat with fond adoration! He caressed it and held it to his chest! Oh to have the faith of a child and an unabashed love for our Lord like this! I learn so much from the innocence of my son!

Once we got home, I busied myself in the kitchen preparing lunch while Luke and Ty headed out to do 'man's work' in the garage. :) A few minutes passed, and I popped my head out the garage door to ask Luke what kind of sandwich he wanted. It was then that Ty caught my eye and nodded in Luke's direction as he worked deep in the garage. I found Luke on his knees, diligently sawing a piece of wood with one of his play saws. His arms moving swiftly back and forth....his little brow furrowed in concentration. He was certainly focused. "He wanted to make a cross." Ty told me. My heart puddled at that moment. My sweet son. Moved in his own four-year-old heart by the lessons learned that day in church...desiring to have his own image of the cross to keep close.

With Ty's help, the two worked to saw the smaller piece of the cross and Ty let Luke hold the drill while they secured the two pieces with screws. The moment had much significance to me, though I know for a boy it was much simpler...a fun building project with his dad. For me, I saw my fervent prayers for Luke in motion...my mind imagined him here as a young boy, then suddenly again as a young man and then fully grown. I imagined this simple building of a cross with his earthly father as foundational to the way his heavenly father will build faith in him through the years! My mind was jerked back into the moment when I saw Luke's little face beaming at me as he held up his new cross to show me! "What is that, Buddy?" I asked. "A cross." he answered. "Uh-huh. Its quite a special thing! Do you know why?" I asked. " 'Cause Jesus died on it for us." he said. So simple yet so profound! Keep building on that, Jesus! He's got a great start!

Later that day, we spray-painted Luke's new cross to match his soon-to-be new room (did I tell you I found his new bedding? I'll post pictures when we get it completed.) It now has its own special place on the shelf in his room and he has talked about it AND his new bible non-stop since Sunday. I even found him near tears this morning when he accidentally got peanut butter from his breakfast on his bible! He was 'reading' it while eating! LOL! Sweet child! Again...to have an unabashed love like that!

But Jesus called the children to him and said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of god belongs to such as these.'" Luke 18:16

The big 4!

As I sit here typing, Luke is right here next to me, happily watching a bit of Finding Nemo before bed. I marvel at him! Has it really been four years since I held that itsy-bitsy 3 pound baby for the first time and saw his little life flash before my eyes in those first moments? Today was, after all, the day I first got to hold my precious son...two and a half days after he was born. It still makes me teary thinking of that moment. I remember vividly how all the possibilities of how his life could turn out...all the threats of dysfunction or disabilities and all the hopes for a healthy child washed over me. I saw them all as a movie film passing through my mind as I held him those first moments. And I cried...sobbed really....at the intensity of it all. But here I sit...next to my perfectly healthy, vibrant, smart-as-a-whip preschooler! How lucky and how blessed we have been! Gratefulness swells in my heart! We are so fortunate!!!

So how did we spend his fourth birthday? We opted for a more mellow celebration this year instead of a big party. (We've pretty much decided that the parties will be every other year, or 'bigger' birthdays like 5 or 10 or whatever. ) We started his day with a special breakfast of waffles with chocolate chips and whipped cream! Mmmmm! He felt so special when I pulled out the Red plate just for him!



Once we were all ready to go, we took a little trip out to the March Air Field Museum to get up close and personal with all the neat airplanes! My dad was able to join us, and that quite possibly was the best part of the visit to the museum! He shared all his old stories with us and delighted in showing his only grandson around the different airplanes! Luke soaked it all up and LOVED seeing all the planes! It was a neat experience for all of us!

On our way...






Luke as Charles Lindbergh and me as Amelia Earhart! LOL!


He LOVED pretending he was a pilot!!


Grandpa explaining all the bells and whistles inside the cockpit!






Handsome boy!!








It was lunchtime as we left the air field, and we had promised Luke lunch at a restaurant so he chose Red Robin for the chicken tenders! Ironically, he ended up eating a corn dog for lunch, but that's okay! We treated him to a strawberry milkshake along with his meal, and I think that was his favorite part!









We headed home for naps after lunch, and Luke fell asleep with visions of presents and birthday cake dancing in his head! :) When the kids got up, Grandma, Grandpa, Meemaw and Uncle Rod came over to share birthday cake with him and to open presents. His big gift this year was his Leapster 2, which he has not put down since he opened it! Guess it was a good choice! :)

All the pictures of him opening presents & blowing out his candles didn't quite turn out for whatever reason, but here is his content little face after all that BLUE frosting! :) LOL!


So that was his big day! Pleasantly mellow, but lots of fun with us all together as a family! Happy Birthday, buddy! Daddy and I love you so much!!!


PS.....Ellie is doing MUCH better today, btw! No fever! Yay! She seems back to her normal self, minus a bit of a runny nose! Maybe you are right Heidi and Amy...roseola??? We'll see if tomorrow brings a rash!

Quick recap

Just a quick recap of yesterday for now....its been a little crazy 'round here the last two days.

First, THANK YOU for all your sweet phone calls or emails (or comments on Facebook!) to wish Luke a happy birthday! I shared each one with him and his little face beamed each time I told him someone new had thought of him! Our day yesterday was great from the birthday standpoint! Luke was just delighted ALL day! I have a ton of pictures to go through and share, but those will just need to wait a day or two for now. I will do a thorough birthday post maybe tomorrow, k?

Part of the craziness from the yesterday was that I ended up having to take Ellie into urgent care after dinner last night because she had been having a high fever (103.7!) for most of the night and day, with really no other symptoms to speak of. We've all had this NASTY respiratory virus (which we ALL now have...still....even Ty!) but since Ellie was the first to get it nearly 2 1/2 weeks ago, I thought she was getting better, and that it wasn't the culprit of the fever. She only has a slight cough and slight congestion. Nothing, (in my mind) to warrant that high of a fever. So off we went to urgent care last night, which ended up taking nearly FIVE hours. :( We didn't get home to close to 11pm. But that paled in comparison to the crappiness of the doctor we saw! He was AWFUL! We STILL do not know the cause of her fever (the doctor said she had a "little redness in one ear and a little redness in her throat"...hmph) but during our stay at the urgent care, her fever rose to 104.2 (!!!) and stayed there even after a dose of tylenol! After a lot of waiting, a dose of tylenol and then motrin, a urine screen (which was negative) and an injection of rocephin, the fever came down to 101.5 and we were able to come home. :( My poor baby! She was so, so, SO hot!!!!! She officially gets the record for the highest fever either one of my kids have had! It was a terrible night! I felt so badly for her! She is a little better today, but the fever was still at 102.9 this morning when she got up. ???? We are totally confused as to what is brewing in her little body and am/was so mad at how the man who treated her last night handled things! (I could rage about that for awhile, but I won't. Suffice to say that it was BAD!) So at this point, we are watching her closely and plan to follow up with Dr. Mailander tomorrow. I just hate when my little ones are sick. :( Praying that she is better soon!

More tomorrow.....

Date Day

Ty and I got to enjoy a slightly unconventional date this afternoon! We went to the shooting range and practiced shooting his handguns! :) And let me just tell you...it was FUN! I've shot his guns a few times in the past, but it has been several, several years. It was definitely time for a little refresher course! So, off we went to the range, while Meemaw kindly took care of the kids! Come to find out...I'm a pretty good shooter! :) Ty says he remembers that I was good the last time we went shooting as well, though I don't recall this! But today, I blasted the snot out of my targets! Wanna see?



We teased that we should've kept the target to hang in the garage with a sign that says "Beware...the wife is dangerous too!" But we didn't. Even the kind man next to us, who was there with his wife (who also turned out to be a shooting instructor) said that he was quite impressed with my ability, especially for not having shot much. Hmph! Who would've know?! I'm kinda proud of myself though !:) There's just something about shooting a firearm that lends confidence to the soul! I hope that doesn't sound weird, but I just felt strong and self-confident today! It was a lot of fun!





Here's my man....if you look off the the right, you'll see the brass flying off after he pulled the trigger! Kinda cool!



After the range, we headed to Olive Garden for some soup, salad and bread sticks (not quite a warrior's dinner, but it was still yummy!!) and to round out our oh-so-romantic date (LOL! I'm actually the one who planned it, btw! The whole thing was my idea, so I'm certainly not complaining!!) we popped by Costco to covet the flat screened TVs and roam around! Hahahaha! Certainly not a conventional date, but WONDERFUL just the same...and OH so fun!!!! It never matters what we do anyway....its just important that we're together...ALONE! :) Thanks for the fun time, babe!!

Tomorrow is Luke's 4th birthday, so I'll be sure to post some pics of our special day! No big party plans this year...just a few special little plans with our family! I can't believe he's FOUR! We are hoping our plans are still a-go in the morning...we put Ellie to bed tonight with a 103.5 fever. :( Not sure what's brewing there...maybe an ear infection since we've all been so sick with this nasty cold? I'm sure tomorrow will tell more! Pray for her, if you will. Anyway...more tomorrow! Night!

2009

I will be a woman of few words today.....just wanted to stop by to bid each of you a Happy New Year! May God's blessings surround you in the weeks and months ahead!