Friday, June 10, 2011

Conversational tangents

Anytime I get one-on-one time with my kids I consider it a wonderful blessing!  They love it, too!  Our time usually consists of them talking, and talking, and talking!  They love the fact that they can talk without being interrupted, and I have their undivided attention.  The conversations usually go in tangents because they want to talk about everything!  It is always enjoyable and very cute!

Last night I took Lauren's friend home and then decided to leave Lauren there to spend the night.  So, it was just me, Franklin and Bethany.  It was his chance to talk!  And boy, did he ever?!  He talked about wanting to be spiderman when he grows up, and Miles, too, so they could save New York.  I asked him why New York needed to be saved and he said, "Because of Venom, of course!"  Well, of course!  He talked about our recent trip to Disney World, and the scary Haunted Mansion, and about spending time with his best friend and cousin, Levi.  And then the conversation moved to Bethany, and this is how it went:
Franklin: Mom, is it possible that Bethany is a boy?
Me: No, Franklin,  she is definitely a girl!
Franklin: Maybe she just hasn't grown her part yet.
Me: *laughing hard* No, she would have grown her part while she was inside me if she were a boy.
Franklin: Well, I don't know. I think it's possible.

I'm still laughing!

Good news...followed by bad stuff...but it's okay

Wednesday morning we received an email from our landlords.  They have agreed to allow us to stay in their rental home until July 15th.  That is a HUGE answer to prayer!  We are grateful!  We told them that we would remove as much as we could from the house, so it would not looked cluttered and they agreed that they would prefer that we do that.  So, this weekend we will be busy packing and decluttering!  I LOVE decluttering!

I was elated at our good news.  I was excited, too, because we were going to a friends house for lunch, play time, and for me to look over her homeschool curriculum.  I got everyone loaded into the hot van.  Lauren couldn't get the portable dvd player to work, so I was untangling cords and replugging everything and still could not get it to work.  I told the kids we would listen to music instead.  So, dripping with sweat and ready to turn on the air, I put the key in the ignition and ....nothing.  We had a dead battery.  I unloaded all of the kids, called our friends with great disappointment (especially for Lauren because her best friend was going to come home to spend the night), and called Roger to let him know what was going on.  We were all bummed.  Then, back to good news...a friend from Roger's work told him about this place that will send someone to your home to replace the battery!  That was great!  In the end, our friends came over, ended up staying for dinner, we had a blast, Lauren's bff got to spend the night and everyone was happy!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Up and downs

Our lives have been full of ups and downs since we moved in December.  Here is how life has been (as I remember it, anyway!)...
Ian got an ear infection, so I got him to the doctor quickly to get him on meds before we moved.
We left Florida December 15th, and woke up to a terrible ice storm in NC the 16th.  Roger and Franklin had already left to meet the movers at our rental home (they were stuck in NC, too!).  My MIL, Frances, and I got on the road in our 15 passenger van with our other four children and me due to have Bethany in a little less than two weeks.  The roads were scary!  Roger called and told us to get off the road because they were watching cars and semi's slide off the road left and right.  After a few hours he called again and told us to go back and find a hotel.  Thankfully, we found a great mall with a very nice hotel in the parking lot and stayed for the night.  We had fun at the mall walking around and watching a movie.  We bought some clothes to go swimming in the hotel pool, too.  We had a great time!  The next day we hit the road again and couldn't wait to make it to our new/temporary home.  Roger called as we were driving and let me know that he was having problems with the movers and that we were going to have to make the family room the master bedroom.  Wait!  What???...lose connection...ughhh!  When we finally arrived at the house Roger was very frustrated with the movers.  At one point they threatened to throw everything in the street and drive away.  They put almost everything in the basement(the basement is ground level), which put us in a terrible jam.  Roger was able to carry the bunk beds and crib upstairs and set them up, but I was too pregnant to help him carry anything else.  We called one of our new pastors and asked if someone could come help us carry everything else upstairs.  In walks Rusty!!!  A BIG man with a caring heart!  We could not have done it without him and his two sons!
On Sunday we went to our new church for the first time.  It was love at first visit!  Ian woke up with a rash on his torso, but we weren't too concerned.  Sunday night Ian woke up in the middle of the night vomiting and with a fever.  Monday evening we had dinner with the Dys family from our new church, but left Ian home with Frances.  On Tuesday Ian's fever was higher and he was vomiting again, so I decided to take him to the doctor.  Keep in mind, he had been on antibiotics for 8 days at this point, so it was odd for him to have a fever.  Problem...the pediatrician did not want to see him because he was not an established patient.  I explained that we had just moved there on Friday, and didn't know what else to do.  They decided to go ahead and see him that morning because they were concerned about him.  I took him to our new pediatrician who said that he still had an ear infection, and his glands in his neck were swollen.  She sent him for bloodwork and ordered a different antibiotic.  As I was waiting for his new antibiotic the ped office called and said that his white blood cell count was really high and that I needed to take him to the emergency room to be admitted for testing.  There I was...in the middle of Rite Aid...big pregnant...tears streaming down my face...and so many kind, compassionate strangers telling me everything would be okay.  We got to the hospital and they did another round of blood work.  This is no easy task!  Ian has terrible veins!!!  His white blood cell count went from 33,000 to 48,000 in a matter of about 4 hours.  It should have been no higher than 12,000.  Panic set in!  They were calling in an infectious disease doctor...and...an oncologist.  Oncologist...cancer...one of my greatest fears.  Once again, tears were streaming down my face and I was very afraid.  I needed Roger to get there!  They were running numerous tests and nothing was coming back positive, so they decided they wanted to do a spinal tap.  "Wait a second!  He doesn't have any symptoms of spinal meningitis.  Why would we do a spinal tap?"  "Just to rule it out."  "But he doesn't have any symptoms!  No, let's wait until tomorrow."  "Well, I don't recommend waiting, but okay, we'll do it in the morning."  When we finally got to our room (after midnight) the nurse told us that there would be no reason to do a spinal tap because they had already started him on IV antibiotics, so the test would not show anything.  Hmmmm...  And then the next morning...  His white blood cell count had come down a little, so they decided not to do a spinal tap.  And then the following morning...his white blood cell count was back up, so they wanted to do a spinal tap again.  Thankfully, they consulted with the infectious disease doctor who said there was no reason to do a spinal tap.  In the end, Ian spent four days in the hospital.  It has been assumed that the terrible infection in his throat was causing his white blood cell count to go up, even though it was a viral infection.  He was not getting any better in the hospital.  The antibiotics were not doing anything because the infection was viral.  We were ready to go home!  I wanted to be home with my family Christmas morning, so I convinced the doctors to let us leave.  We got home Friday night, Christmas Eve, and spent Christmas with a terribly sick little boy.
Sunday night...Ari and Franklin woke up in the night...vomiting.  Nooooooo!!!  Roger woke up Monday morning feeling very sick.  And it all went downhill from there!  Lauren and Miles got sick on Tuesday, I got sick Tuesday evening and then Frances and I were both sick on Wednesday...and I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday.  Oh my!  I went to bed Wednesday night feeling awful and was up all through the night.  Roger asked if I would cancel the induction, but I really didn't know what to do.  I wanted to get labor over!  The hospital called at 4am and told me to be there at 6:30am.  I decided I would go ahead and do it.  I didn't feel well during labor, but I felt better than I had the day before.  Bethany arrived Thursday evening (I still need to write down her birth story!), and we felt like things should get better from there.
Ian got better and then worse, and then better, and then worse...over and over.  When Bethany was two weeks old we took Ian to get tubes in his ears.  We hoped that would help.  It helped his ears, but not his throat.  He could not get rid of the infection in his throat completely.  Finally, I took him back to the ENT for a check-up and told him we needed to do something else.  He had been on four different antibiotics and a steroid in 4 weeks and he was still sick.  The only thing left to do was to take out his tonsils.  Ian was the youngest patient our doctor had operated on for tonsils and adenoids, but it seemed to be the only thing to do.  Ians tonsils were so bad that they were literally falling apart and the ENT had to be very careful while cutting them out.  Ian breezed through surgery and mostly through recovery and is finally a healthy little boy!
Our house situation...
We have had a terrible time finding a house we want to buy.  We are looking for something very specific and don't want to settle too much.  The house we are renting was put back on the market in March, which we agreed to in our lease agreement.  In April they got a contract on the house and we were told we needed to be out May 15th.  In the meantime, we found a house we want to buy, but cannot move in until July.  So, what do we do for 6 weeks?  Good question!  We found a house to rent for 3 months, but as Roger got to the house to sign the lease agreement the owner was in the backyard shaking hands with another man...he had just sold the house!  We had movers ready to come on Wednesday to move us into the house.  This was a Saturday!  Once again, I was panicked!  We wanted to talk to the buyers of the house we are renting to ask if we could rent the house from them until July, but no one would let us speak to them.  When the house was inspected they found problems with the foundation. It was up and down for a while, but in the end, the contract fell through.  Now, the owners have given us until June 15th, but we cannot move into our new house until July 15th.  What now?!  We have no idea.  Roger is going to talk to our landlords and plead for one more month.  As for me...I just cannot wait to get into our new house and finally get settled!!!!  Bethany is 5 months old and I have still not been able to nest!