Little Peanut's Birthday

Little Peanut turned two last month. I love that she is a girlie girl. With all these boys running around and all the mud recently I enjoy a little girl who loves to wear dresses and have her hair fixed. For her birthday we had cake from Auntie in WV. Here's the birthday girl with her cake. You'll notice that she has two different dresses on in the pictures. No, it wasn't two different days. She started out in the pink one and then Auntie get her the blue one and when she opened it she insisted on putting the dress on right there in front of all her guests. So we did. Auntie got to enjoy seeing it on her that day.
Papa made her a great kitchen cabinet for her toy dishes. Cousin Abby was the 'creative consultant' on the project. She even got to play with Little Peanut with the finished product. Mommy and Daddy got her a playhouse specially designed for little hands.
Back around Easter, my mother-in-law got all the kids a rubber ducky. They each got a different color. AJ was green, JM was blue, Little Peanut was pink, and Grasshopper was yellow. Little Peanut commandeered them all as hers. It was really funny how much she loved those ducks. So guess what Grandma got her for her birthday...four more ducks. She was so funny pulling them out of the packages. Happy Birthday Little Peanut ! We Love You!! We can't wait to see all the wonderful things you're going to learn this year.

This Just Cracks Me Up

My kids love movies, don't most kids? I try to limit how much tv they watch. We just got the movie Meet the Robinsons. There is one part that just completely cracks me up...which is why I got the movie for the kids. The dinosaur is being controlled by "bowler hat guy" and he's try to capture the boy. "bowler hat guy" says to the dinosaur, "why aren't you seizing the boy?"
The dino says, "Cause I have a big head, and little arms and I'm not sure how well this plan was thought through!"
For some reason that just cracks me up. Now back to the laundry, dishes, and house work!

At a Loss for Words

This is what I saw the other night when I went to make sure the boys were asleep in their beds. See that book by JM. Now , mind you, he can't read yet. He does recognize some letters but he can't read. Look at the title. Look closer! Can you believe it! My child took The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to bed with him. How funny is that?? And how appropriate for this child.

Making Progress

Well, it took a couple days, including time off for good weather. My office/ craft room is doing much better. It's not 100% yet but I'm definitely able to work more in here now. I got rid of 4 boxes full of stuff as well as a large trash bag full of...well, trash. Here are my after pictures. Before

After

Before

After
Before
After

It's Not Saturday Night Fever

Oh no....nothing close to it....more like a Thursday morning fever. High enough that it made my eyes water and nothing would help but laying down. That was yesterday. Doesn't that sound like fun??
Tuesday night Little Peanut seemed quite warm and then on Wednesday she, I, JM, and Grasshopper all had major runny noses and coughs. By Thursday everyone seemed better except for me. I had planned to get ahead in my cleaning and purging this week since I don't have anything scheduled until Sunday.....needless to say I'm now two days behind in that. But the time has come.
My office/craft room is going to go through an overhaul today. Care to watch?? Here are the before pictures....

Did I miss something??

Has anyone noticed that the year 1/4 over??? I feel like I just woke up and realized that it's already April. My sister have both been doing well keeping up with their blogs. It's time to revisit my goals for the year and reevaluate them. I know I have some things to still focus on.

• The first was my skincare routine. I've been doing good with keeping up but it's not quite working as well for me so I think I'll be making some changes. Morning and night will still be on the chart though.
• Prayer time is a struggle for us. I'm going to make it a priority tonight.
  
• Work-out at the Rec!! Well our pass expired in Feb. we just recently got it renewed. The boys are taking a swim class twice a week and that gets me there. Now I just need to use the 30 min. from the start of AJ's class to the start of JM's to get on the elliptical machine.
• More organized...that has been happening but it is still an ongoing process. I've been getting rid of lots of stuff. LOTS OF STUFF!
• as for my Pampered Chef business...it's slowly picking up steam. I'm comfortable with the pace though.
  

I guess I will also focus on updating my blog a bit more too. For those of you who are interested one of my best friends from high school is an MK named Alex. He's currently riding his bicycle from Austin, Texas to Oregon but here's the interesting part. He's going through Mexico up the western coast. He's keeping a journal here and you can check it out. He's taken some great pictures and has some good commentary to go along with it.
More updates about the family tomorrow.

Chicken Emergency

JM has a chicken from the Sandra Boynton books. He named her Amy immediately after he got her and it stuck quite well. No one is really sure where or why he picked this name but it's kinda funny. He loves Amy Chicken.
The other night JM came downstairs crying that Amy's leg was broken. I looked at her leg expecting a rip between her leg and her body. Both legs looked fine to me and I told him she wasn't broken.
"But she will if I do this," he said and proceeded to grab her legs in one had a her head in the other and pull quite vigorously in opposite directions. My advice to him was, "Then don't do that!"
Poor chicken. A couple days later she did indeed get a rip in her leg and I had to attempt chicken surgery during nap time. He never mentioned that her leg was fixed but I haven't seen him pulling on her legs anymore either.

Wordless Wednesday

Conversations in the Van

Saturday night on the way to church AJ asked is Puk Puk was 6 and I said yes.
Then he asked if JR was 8 and I said no he was 15.
"Wow," he said, "that is a big number."
"Yes," I agreed.
Then AJ says, "JR is big and he's going to get bigger and bigger until he's big like Clifford. Then he won't fit in the house or the van."
So here's to you....JR Clifford!! :)

We Just Can't Get Enough

Nathan and I have been watching Star Trek Voyager for quite a few months now. We started with Season 1 and have Netflixed all of the episodes. We each love different characters, he likes Seven of Nine. ( Who doesn't??) And I like Tom Paris. I've really enjoyed sharing a similar passtime. I've been a Trekkie since I was in elementary school, although not in the strongest sense of the word. I never wore funny clothes or talked in Klingon. But I've always loved to watch it. Nathan on the other hand, for all his "nerdieness" had never watched Star Trek before we got married. He humored me for my birthday and bought me Season 1 of the original series with Captain Kirk but he didn't get into until I started watch the Next Generation. It's fun to be able to fill him in on the back story of lots of the characters.
When it came to Voyager, I'd seen several episodes on tv. I knew the plot line but I hadn't seen much. It's been new for both of us. This is a clip from one of our favorite episodes. This is Seven and the Doctor, who is trying to teach her social skills, and yes, that is their own voices. Enjoy!

Can't get me......Oww!!

Yes, I heard that sentence only seconds ago. A stuffed animal war is raging violently through my upstairs! Animals are flying in ways that God never intended for large blue frogs to fly. Giggles are flying just as much and I'm very entertained.
Tonight Nathan and I played Candyland with the boys. As I am in the "Queen" of Candyland it was only fitting that I win. :) That is a story for another time though. And no, to those who may ask, I did NOT stack the deck.
Now they are play wildly when they are supposed to be getting ready for bed. Nathan fully started this so I guess he will be the one that has to finish it. What fun!!! Except for the frog, and the duck, and the chicken named Amy.

Thank You!!

Hey ya'll! Thank you for the two awards....I'm not totally sure I'm a blogaholic but I'm certainly a readaholic! :) Especially Pioneer Woman. She's just awesome. And Shaunda, you make me smile too! A lot!!

Wordless Wednesday

Kissing...

After reading this post over at Three Girl Circus the other day over hearing this this morning was pretty amusing. They were busy building roads and playing with cars.

AJ- Did you kiss me?

JM- No.

AJ- Yes you did. You kissed me!

JM- I DID NOT KISS YOU!

AJ- Thank you for the nice kiss JM!

JM- I. DID. NOT. KISS. YOU.

I got a good little giggle out of it.

I actually made it

Wow! I can't believe it! I actually made it to the rec center this morning. I got up at 5:40 and hauled my not so little hiney to go workout. I came home all woken up and ready to go. Nathan was still in bed and not quite so enthusiastic about the morning. Laundry is going, small fundraiser problems are taken care of, and we are on top of it this morning.
Last night one of my friends came over and we watched American Gladiators. Do any of you remember that show from 15 years ago. I used to watch it on Saturday night with my dad. Apparently he blocked out that memory but Tammy and I sure had a great time last night. They have some new challenges and the same old good ones like Joust and Hang Tough. We were way more impressed with the girls than the guys. It was just fun.
Now I'm off to rotate more laundry and find something that needs to be organized.

During our last House Showing

You may know that we are attempting to sell our house in an effort to downsize both payment and space. Our realtor called last Friday and asked if we could show our house on Sunday. I asked what time and she said whatever was good for us. I told her between 10 and 12 because we would be at church. We heard from her on Monday. This is what our conversation sounded like.
Me: How did it go?

Her: Great! The lady really loved the house. There was just one little problem.

Me: What's that?

Her: Well your ceilings are only 8 feet 10 inches tall.

Me: Okay?

Her: Well the lady has some antique furniture that is 8 feet 11 inches tall so she absolutely has to have nine foot ceilings.

Me: Are you serious?

Her: I suggested she just cut a couple inches off the legs but she didn't seem to go for it. Oh well, we'll try again.

After all that, I wasn't even sure how to respond.

Thursday Thirteen

It's been a long time since I've done a Thursday Thirteen. I thought I would do one to start off the new year. Here are thirteen things I'm thankful or excited about for the new year.

1. Everyone is at home and getting better, including Grasshopper. Checkups are still going on but we're getting good reports.
2. There are 362 days left to achieve my goals.
   
3. My husband has a good job, we're praying for better.
   
4. My new business is very exciting to me. I'm thankful I have a great team leader who's always encouraging me.
5. Jay Leno is back on the air after the writers strike. :) We like his monologues.
   
6. AJ goes back to school today, and starts kindergarten this fall.
   
7. On his birthday, in Dec, JM will be having his first day of preschool! Maybe then I'll finally get Peanut to the library for story hour. :D
8. In August, all of my children will be over the age of 1. Even if I'm pregnant then all children outside the womb will be over 1.
9. The Call-08.08.08 A chance to come together with a million other Christians passionate about impacting our government and our society. Nathan and I are so ready to go!!! and of course our church family too. This one will be held in Washington D.C. on the Mall. Bring your water and your sunscreen!
   
10. I've been elected to the county Republican Women's Club officers. I'm going to be the secretary for the next two years. I get sworn in on Tuesday....you're all coming right?
11. Speaking of elections....it's an election year! How exciting!
12. Nathan and I got to see a great movie over the Christmas break. National Treasure-Book of Secrets. It was awesome.
    
13. I'm thankful for my great friends that I'm getting to know. Nathan and I are hoping to spend more time with them this year.
    

Wordless Wednesday

The icing is gone? Why is the icing gone? This cupcake does not meet with my standards...I need another one!!!

Happy New Year

I've been thinking some about a New Year's Day post and what kind of goals I wanted to set for myself. Each time I thought about it I hesitated to put anything in writing thinking that I would just be setting myself up to not succeed fail. I have many goals for the new year, some great big ones, and others just little tiny things. Then I read my sister Mama Lily's post today about her goals for the New Year and how she feels similar to me in her mindset.
I often get behind in my goals and wonder if there is any use in trying to keep up. I'll just try again when I'm done raising my kids is something that I've thought before. But at this rate it could be a LONG time before then and I don't want to put my life on hold. I want to be a good example for my kids. I want to show them how it's supposed to be done.
So in that spirit, I'm going to post some of my goals for the coming year, starting with the mundane.

• wash my face, morning and evening. Yes, I did say mundane. It's something I neglect because I feel that I just don't have time. But, when I take the time, I feel much better so in reality it is worth the time it takes. Besides, I really like the new Mary Kay tinted moisturizer. WORKS GREAT!
• pray daily with my husband. Often times, Nathan and I neglect our time together as a couple with God. We really want to focus on doing this together.
  
• work out at the rec three times a week. This is really going to be a HUGE undertaking for me. With four small children it's too expensive to put them in the daycare at the rec. $16 an hour for four of them. My extended family is also busy with their own schedules as well. I'm going to have to get creative with my times. I'm determined to get back into shape. I want my next pregnancy to be less struggle on me physically and I'd like to keep up better with my children.
  
• more organized. I don't want to be forgetting doctor appointments, WIC appointments, and all those other things that I tend to forget until it's too late. I want to be more on top of what's going on with our family. This will require cutting back on some activities.
  
• really pump up my Pampered Chef business. I signed up to be a consultant in November right before Thanksgiving. I had five parties scheduled for Dec. Thanks to Grasshopper's little vacation in the hospital I only got to do one of them. I'm hosting an open house this month to get things jump started again. I love Pampered Chef and I really want to do well with it. It's a great opportunity to earn some extra income for our family.
  

That's five. And for now I think that is enough. They are my main goals for now. I would like to revisit them in a few months to see how I'm doing. I hope you all are enjoying your New Year. And if you need a little motivation for you weight loss goals, tune in to NBC tonight for the start of the new Biggest Loser season. It looks like it's going to be a good one.

Day 22

Grasshopper is doing good today. No breathing treatments last night. He's still not back to his old self but he's doing better. The doctors haven't done rounds on him yet so he isn't nursing. He's getting breastmilk through his feeding tube. We've had some cuddle time. I'm really looking forward to coming home.

Yea for Grasshopper!

Update on the little man. They took out his tube just after 10 am. He's resting peacfully now. He's doing good. They are going to start his meds back up this afternoon. They want to wean him off cause the meds are pretty heavy duty and they don't want him to have nasty side effects from going cold turkey. He's got a little oxygen tube resting in his nose for pressure since his lungs have had regular pressure for almost two weeks. Here's a picture I took after we had some cuddle time.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray that he will continue to improve. We would like him to pass tonight (an assesment to move to a regular room) so that he can move to the 7th floor. Once there they will talk about releasing him. Home for Christmas is definitely in reach. :)

Prayer Request

There was a couple about mine and Nathan's age staying in the room next to us at the Ronald McDonald House. They had a 2 year old little girl and a little boy Grasshopper's age. They are from the Mansfield area. About the same time Grasshopper came here the Mansfield ER sent their little boy here because he had been choking. When they got here the doctors discovered that the little boy had a hole in his heart...this was completely out of the blue for them.
He was stablized and then they had to wait for surgery. He was opperated on yesterday and afterwards they were given a good report. The surgery went fine. Then yesterday afternoon the little boy died. I wasn't able to say goodbye before they left this morning. I would appreciate your prayers for this little family. The mom was really sweet and I can't imagine what it would feel like to go home without your little one.
Please pray for a spirit of peace over Grasshopper in the morning. We're still scheduled to get the tube out. I can't wait to hold him and nurse him. I'm so ready to see him awake again.

Purple Nightgown

Today Grasshopper has clothes on for the first time in a couple of weeks. They put a purple infant hospital gown on him this morning after his bath. How cute!! Only he's not a girl. :)

Update...at 4 am tomorrow morning they will stop his feed line and start IV fluids. They will switch his meds over to some different ones and get him ready to be excabated. (take out the breathing tube) They are going to do it in his room. Please pray for peace for Grasshopper. We want him to remain calm through a breathing treatment and give himself time to adjust to not being on the ventalator. We are hoping to be home in time for Christmas....my brother-in-law Sam's present isn't quite finished. Don't worry Sam I'll make sure it's done.

Grasshopper Update

Here's the latest on little Grasshopper.
Yesterday there was a cancellation in the morning so they took him for surgery at 11 am. The surgeon wanted to do scope before the procedure to see what he was working with. He found that the swelling was going down and was able to put a bigger tube in than had been in before. They put his tube back in and put him back on steriods.
They are going to wait until Thursday and try taking out his breathing tube and let him try on his own again. They aren't scaple happy here and I'm thankful for that.
Pray that my milk supply keeps up. And pray that Grasshopper will stay calm on Thursday and breath well on his own. We would love to be home in time for Christmas.
I have internet access and a computer in his room now so I can check my email frequently and update my blog.
I had some serious catching up to do on all my blogs.

Update on the Grasshopper

Friday Dec. 7.
The night before they started changing his sedation meds in preparation for removing his breathing tube.
At 11 am they took out his tube and everything sounded clear. Once he was fully awake the chest retractions, wheezing, coughing, and everything else came back in full force. He had two breathing treatments and the heli/ox combo mentioned earlier.
At 10 til noon they put his breathing tube back in and sedated him. His breathing returned to normal.
His surgery is scheduled for Monday at 4 pm.
I'm home for the weekend to attend my sister's musical and to go to our church Christmas dinner. I'm also spending some time with the kids. The surgeon gave me a rundown of how the operation will go and said that there would be at least 10 days afterwards in the hospital. So, we're looking at Christmas in the hospital. It's not what we would want but we're getting the problem fixed. I will be coming home on Christmas Eve morning and then going back to Akron on Christmas night. We should be able to cram all our festivities in that time frame.
Thank you all for your prayers and help during this time.

Akron...Day 8

Monday Dec. 10

Due to his little nickname "Wild Man" they have given him a rather strong muscle relaxer. The sedatives were just not cutting it for him so now they don't have to give him so much of that. Every hour or so he would start kicking and moving his arms and arching his back. They didn't want him to move his tube because it would further irritate his throat. They will let it wear off tomorrow and then put him back on it for another 24 hours. Last night he developed a leak around his breathing tube meaning that some of the swelling was going down. However, this morning the leak was gone. If he can develop a leak and keep it then they might not need to do surgery. But if it doesn't come back then they will need to do the surgery. For those of you who like to look up things on line the surgery is called a cricoid split. I think that is spelled correctly. We still don't know if it will be tomorrow or on Wednesday. I'm praying it will be tomorrow because AJ's first school program is Wednesday night and I'd really like to be there for it. With the muscle relaxer he doesn't twitch at all which means mommy can kiss him a little and hold his hand and talk to him more. His temperature dropped pretty low this evening so they are doing some blood work to make sure that he doesn't have an infection. He also got something in his bed called a snuggle bear. It's like a warm air mattress that goes under him and keeps him warm. Thank you all for your prayers. My sweet friend Allison came for a visit this evening. We had fun driving to a local mall with her two girls. We had Chinese for dinner and then did some shopping. I got Nathan's Christmas present...but it went home with her so he will never know what it is. :) I got out of the hospital for a couple hours and it was a nice break. Tomorrow is our MOPS Christmas party and it's the first time I've missed the Christmas meeting since I started going to MOPS. My thoughts will be with you all.Pray that my milk supply will stay strong. So far I've been able to pump enough to keep him supplied continuously but pumping is not as effective as nursing. Pray for the other kiddo's...they have been having temperatures and throwing up and my mom and Nathan are taking care of them.

Adventures in Akron

Hi ya'll. This is my no frills update on Grasshopper.
Friday night 11/30 ER trip and diagnosed with croup. Given a breathing treatment and steriods and sent home.
Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Breathing treatment and at 7:30 am taken to the ER.
Sunday morning- Breathing treatment in the ER transfered me and him to Akron Children's Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. He was put on a helium/oxygen mixture and given an IV in his forehead.
Sunday night/Monday morning- Taken off heli-ox and IV taken off at noon. He was transfered to a regular room. His dr. wanted him to go 24 hours without a breathing treatment.
Tuesday 5 am- another breathing treatment. Great day and good night.
Wednesday 5 am- another breathing treatment. Great day and good night.
Thursday 5 am- another breathing treatment. Great day and good night.
Friday 7:30 am- another. breathing. treatment. an okay day.
Saturday midnight, 4 am and 9 am.- breathing treatments. They brought in an ear nose and throat dr to look at him to see what else could be going on. They did a scope at 3 pm and discovered that his little throat is too small. Instead of 3.5 millimeters it's only 2.5 millimeters in diameter. It's call subglottic stenosis. They immediately put in a breathing tube and feeding tube and transfered him back to the P.I.C.U. He's fully sedated and will be having surgery on Monday or Tuesday. After the surgery he will be sedated for 7 days with a breathing tube and feeding tube. He's getting breastmilk in the feeding tube so we will still be breastfeeding when he's better. Once he's done 7 days they will let him wake up and nurse and then when he's stable transfer him back to a regular room and finish his recovery. Please pray that we can bring him home for Christmas. You can call my cell and leave me a message. I'll call with updates as to how he's doing. He's only on 25 % oxygen right now so he's doing most of the breathing work himself. Thank you for all your prayers.
In his regular room with the IV hookup on his forehead.
Dad and Grasshopper sitting out an antibiotic treatment in his IV with his little seal from the nurses.
In the P.I.C.U. fully sedated with breathing and feeding tube.

Thanksgiving Recap

Our trip was wonderful. We got to visit with family that we haven't seen in awhile. We got to visit with Granny. She broke her hip the night before we left and had surgery the same night. When we saw her on Wednesday she was doing really good. She's in rehab now and doing great.
Here's a recap in pictures. The kids all ready to take off. They did excellent in the van, both there and back.Here's the only shot of me from the whole trip. I'm a wonderful photographer if I do say so myself.Nathan drove almost the whole way there and the whole way back. Who says I never let him drive?AJ and JM got to ride on the tractor with Uncle Michael. Here is cousin Tom holding Grasshopper.On Thanksgiving Day there was lots of food and lots of family. Including my nephew Tom getting beat up by Grasshopper...the big one. :)This is Little Peanut's new best friend. My cousin Paul kept feeding her pumpkin pie and the quickest way to that girl's heart is through her stomach.On Saturday brother shot a turkey. He was hunting deer and none appeared so he got a turkey instead. It was quite tasty.I was very ready to get home. Can you tell by how fast Nathan was driving??? I like 70 mph speed limits. :D Apparently the van needs a little dusting as well...that's bad!!!I'm glad to be back and have so many new things coming up on our calendar that I feel like I'm spinning out of control. I will make it through. Soon there will be lovely house pictures to post. I like to decorate. This year I'm not doing it all in one fell swoop though. I'm going to enjoy it.

On the Road Again

Happy Thanksgiving....a little early. Nathan and I and all the kids are traveling to visit my extended family this week. I'm so excited about seeing some of these relatives that I haven't seen since before we moved to Nigeria. Some it's been 5 years since I saw them. Nathan, of course, has never met them. My brother is going to be there as well and they all come cause he's there. Which means for us that it's the best time to go. We wish you all a wonderful, thankful, (haha I just typed tankful...) and a tankful day. See you next week.