Ashley's big day

I would like to say that I am really good under pressure; that I am one of those people that you can always count on to keep their cool no matter what the circumstance. As I said, I would like to be that way--the last few months have again shown me that I am truly not very good under pressure. I tend to freak out--especially if I'm tired. So Ashley must have her father's genes because she was absolutely AWESOME today when she was under pressure. By the time we left the hospital she had downed 4 popsicles and drank a whole container of grape juice. She was feeling great considering what she had just been through. And every time we have asked her to drink or eat a popsicles, she hasn't argued a bit even though I KNOW her throat must horribly hurt. She didn't even complain about it hurting until tonight and I think that was just because she was tired. So, here's to you Ashley, you truly are AWESOME under pressure. I'm so proud of you!

Ashley and her new friend Winston.
She loved her hat. In fact, probably the saddest moment of the day was when we lost it.

My new mystery job

So where do I begin? Usually when I post I know where I am going in my post and how I'm going to get there. With this one, I have no idea where this post is going to end up and, therefore, no idea what the road will look like. So enjoy the ride.... I went "bake home again" this past weekend. Friday night I actually went to a high school football game with my sister-in-law. It was so much fun!! I don't remember the last time I went to a high school football game--it was probably senior night when I was in high school. Then I returned to my in-laws and "partied on" in a married woman sort of a way and went to bed close to midnight. Reality set in around 1am when Nathan woke up wheezing and then he wheezed on and off all night. So, you guessed it, the next morning I was at the prompt care. He tested positive for strep. I came back to the house, tried to keep my eyes open for lunch and then headed to my other sister-in-law's house for yet a third sister-in-law's baby shower. Then we loaded up and headed home so we could be sure to be at church on Sunday. This, however, was not to be. Nathan had another horrible night and ended up in the ER on Sunday morning. Do you know what a mystery shopper is? I feel like at some point I became a mystery "responsible party for the patient" at doctor's offices and hospitals. The only problem is that no one informed me that I got signed up. Seriously, the prompt care where Nathan was treated called me today with survey questions. "Did Dr. (so and so) introduce himself to you?" My response "I have no idea." It was 8am, I was running on maybe 3 hours of sleep and NO COFFEE! So if I am signed up, they should let me know so that I can be more prepared for my next visit. Anyway, I'll spare you all the details, but will let you know that Nathan also had croup and we had John in the doctor's office today with the croup. Oh, and not sure if you remembered, but Ashley gets her tonsils out tomorrow.

The synopsis of how I feel about fall

As one who has Hoosier blood running through my veins I cannot get through a cool, crisp fall morning without the words of James Whitcomb Riley running through my head:

WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUNKIN

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,

And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,

And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,

With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,

As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' hearty-like about the atmosphere,

When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here--

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;

But the air's so appetisin'; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur that no painter has the colorin' to mock--

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty rustle of the tossels of the corn,

And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;

The stubble in the furries--kindo' lonesome-like, but still

A-preachin' sermons to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;

The hosses in theyr stalls below--the clover overhead!--

O, it sets my heart a-clikin' like the tikin' of a clock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

James Whitcomb Riley

One lightbulb away from KABOOM!

Let me set the scene--it was the Thursday before Joe's surgery. We had a doctor's appointment we had to be at right after we dropped the girls off at school and had the boys picked up by the wonderful friend who was watching them. This meant that I actually had to be showered, dressed and looking presentable by the time the girls went to school. So the morning was hectic. Sara was having a horrible time determining what she wanted to wear to school, so I decided to help her muttering the whole way down the stairs "I don't have time for this" I flipped on the light switch and as the light went on it had an onimous flicker to it. I had just enough time to think "Oh, please don't go out" and then it went dark. Sara's room is in the basement and we don't have the egress window (large window) in yet, so it was utterly and completely dark. Time to change the light bulb. Of course when I took the light bulb out, I dropped it, it hit the chair and shattered EVERYWHERE. So know we are in the dark with glass on the floor and I haven't showered yet! I get a lamp from upstairs and plug it in. It is at the moment that I look up that I realize what a blessing this chaos has turned out to be. For the picture below is what I saw:

Now, seriously, how in the world did this not burn our entire house down!!! And so, my chaos turned into a blessing as, after further investigation, we realized this wasn't the only light fixture in the house that looked like this. And, I even had time for a shower before we left!

Ashley--my little me

The day I took Ashley to the doctor last week, I had at least 5 people say something to the effect of "WOW!!! You certainly can tell that she is your daughter." So I had Joe take a picture so I could get the full effect of what other people see. And, yeah, I guess there is somewhat of a resemblance... If she had red hair, she would know what she would look like in about 20 years.

My little post-modernist

When I had children I expected to have to teach them truth at some point--as in telling the truth versus lying. And, we have had some lessons on that in our house. However, John, recently, has been taking the matter of what truth is to an entirely new level. There was a time this last week that I actually thought that maybe he had become a post-modernist. It all started a few weeks ago. We were on our way to the doctor's office (imagine that :) ). We have to go over the river to get to our pediatrician's office. So, as we were crossing the river, John said that he saw a sailboat. There was no sailboat where he was looking. There was, however, a very large buoy. I said, "no, John that is a buoy." His reply "No, mommy, that is a sailboat." After several exchanges mirroring the above statements, he finally said "Okay, mommy, how about if you call it a buoy and I call it a sailboat. It can be a buoy for you and a sailboat for me." (How's that for relativism?!) It was at this point that I said "Well, you can call it whatever you want, but the truth is that it is a buoy. You would be lying if you insisted that it was a sailboat." I think he eventually got it because the next time we crossed the bridge, he very emphatically told his sister that it was indeed a buoy. Well, this last week on our way home from dropping the girls off at church, he was in deep thought in the backseat. Finally, he posed this question "Mommy, can I call yellow white and white yellow?" "No, John, the color yellow is yellow and the color white is white." Of course the next questions were "Why, mommy?" And "Who named the colors?" It was at this point that I answer like I do a lot of times as a mom "I have no idea, John." John: "I want to call yellow white and white yellow." And so I again explained the matter of truth. Needless to say, we have been reinforcing with him where he can find Truth, but I do think he will give his philosophy professor in college a run for his money--not to mention the kind of challenges he will give me before he leaves home. I should probably brush up on my apologetics.

My rain maker

We have a garage semi-attached to our house. It isn't attached in the sense that you can go through a door in the house and walk through it and be in the garage. You have to go outside and then go into the garage. However the roof line is attached to the house and the walkway to the garage is entirely covered. So, I call it a semi-attached garage--not sure if that is the technical name for it or not. In any case, it also has an automatic garage door on it. I think this is so cool because it is the first house that I've ever lived in where I have an automatic garage door. When we first moved in, it wasn't working real great and you had to push and hold down the button on the wall to get the door to go down. However, now, thanks to a guy in our small group who works on garage doors, it is fixed and it works perfect! I even play little games with it to see how far away I can be and still get the door to open. I also occasionally check and see if my opener will open anyone else's garage door. Do they program those things? In any case, you can bet that I ALWAYS park the van in the garage now. And I've kind of made it a big deal to everyone that we can now get in the van without getting wet when it rains. The bummer is that we really haven't had any rain since it started working. That is --until this weekend when I didn't have the van parked in the garage!! The truck got parked in the driveway a little funny and so, in order to ensure that I wouldn't hit the truck, we left the van in the driveway. And by the time I was ready to drive it again, it was raining. I couldn't believe it--I actually got wet! Then, again today, I went shopping this morning. I didn't park it in the garage when I got home because I had a bunch of stuff to unload from the car. Keep in mind it was a beautiful sunshiny morning, but now, within an hour of leaving the van out, I just looked outside and it was raining. Also, I kid you not, I went outside, pulled the van into the garage, and it immediately stopped raining. In fact, as I look out the window I see the sunshine. Kind of eerie...at least now I know the next time what I should do if we begin having a drought.

The new description of my son

My son Nathan has more energy than a stick of dynamite. Joe added that he can be more destructive than dynamite as well. Am I getting old or do two year olds really run faster now than they did when I had my first child? I told a friend the other day that I should have had my boys first--when I was in my 20s. She said I would have to take that up with the Lord. I just may...

My future doctors

So what have I been up to lately since it certainly hasn't been blogging? Believe it or not I have been spending some more time at the doctor's office. This time it was with Ashley. It was determined on Monday that she is to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. Plus she is going to have some tissue in her nose trimmed. At this point, she thinks this is all going to be pretty cool. And, so far, she has handled everything like a pro. She had her blood drawn on Monday afternoon. I must say I was at least slightly worried about that. Anytime you mention needle, shot, blood, or anything of the like to her in the past she completely freaks out. So we did some major preparation before they took her blood. She sat on my lap and I began my speech about how you don't have to watch and maybe it would be better if you just looked at me, etc. Personally, I pass out if I watch them draw my blood. Okay, so it doesn't have to be my blood--I pass out watching them draw any one's blood. So the nurse prepped her and then poked her. After a really big shout of "OUCH!" from Ashley, she stared completely mesmerized by what was taking place. And, then when it was finished, she stated "That was so cool. Did you see all the dark blood they took from me Mommy?" And, of course, the next day we had to keep the band-aid on because "I want to show it during show and tell, Mommy." Who knows, maybe we have a future doctor on our hands. John is showing signs of that as well---when Joe got back from his surgery, John was very insistent that he wanted to see what tools they used to cut Daddy. He was a little too fascinated with Daddy's cuts.

My corrections to the previous blog...

On our way to visit the surgeon this morning I was relaying my previous blog post to Joe. As I was relaying it, he began correcting me. Joe has to correct me a lot, I mean, a lot. I don't know if I just get in a hurry in life and don't pay attention or what, but I've learned that 99% of the time when he corrects me he is right. And so, even though he was in so much pain that he had to take morphine, here are the errors that he corrected.

• It was not called the Skinny Cow. It was called the Spotted Cow. I guess there are ice cream sandwiches that you can buy in your local grocery freezer section that are named Skinny Cow. And so, even though I got it wrong for where I ate on Tuesday night, I still ask who wants to eat a skinny cow or look like one?
• Second thing I got wrong--not sure how this happened--the doctor's name. His name wasn't Joseph. No, in fact, his name was James Brown. Yep--that is almost even better than if his name was Joseph. I'll let your mind wander on that one...

He goes in for surgery tomorrow afternoon to remove an organ that God gave us, but we evidently don't have to have in order to function in everyday life. I'll keep you updated!