Hopeful...

I am hopeful that we will have good weather for Lydia's birthday party on Sunday, September 10. We have put so much work into planning it. It's all going to be outside, so rain would really mess things up.

And I'm so impatient. Checking weatherchannel.com for weather over two weeks in advance.

A little nervous.

Earlier this morning, the chance of rain for 9/9/06 was 0%.

Now it's 10%.

I know, I know. 10% is still so little. But what if the chance for rain keeps growing?

I need to stop.

Please pray for clear skies on 9/10 in our backyard! We're going on a backyard aventure for Lydia's birthday!!

Complete with spotting scopes, safari hats, maps, animals to find, fish to save, Baby Jaguar to rescue and volcanos erupting. Lydia is SO excited!! She wants to talk about her party every night at bedtime.

She loves to sing the song I put in her party invitations:
Come on! Vamanos! Everybody let's go!
Come on. Let's get to it. I know that we can do it.
Where are we going? Lydia's party!
Where are we going? Lydia's party!
Where are we going? Lydia's party!
Where are we going? LYDIA'S PARTY!

She spins around and dances when we sing it!

She keeps reminding me who she want to invite.

"Oh! We forgot to invite Teah's mom!" (And I say, "No we didn't. We invited Teah's mom.")

"Oh! We forgot to invite Hershey!" (a friend's puppy). I just let that one go. She'll be so disappointed that Hershey isn't coming with Jason & Alayna. =)

If I can pull it off, Lydia will have a rainforest cake and a map cake. We'll see how they turn out. I have high hopes!

Pray for clear skies. Pray. Pray. Pray!

Rebekah's first full day of school

Rebekah's first full day of kindergarten was on Monday. I snapped a couple of pictures of her before I dropped her off at the O'Neals (since Rebekah will be carpooling with them this year --- Thanks, Amy!).

Then, ama-zingly, Amy got Rebekah and Liam to actually pose for a few pictures before dropping them off at school!! I'm so excited! These will be great in Bekah's kindergarten scrapbook!

Amy even got some pictures of them in the class room. I am SO loving being friends with the class mom (and one that loves to take pictures as much as I do).

Here is some of what Amy wrote about Liam & Bekah's first full day of kindergarten:

"Rebekah arrived a little before 8 and Liam decided it would be a good time to hide. If you remember, Rebekah is the little girl from Liam's Pre-K class that likes him. He didn't stay hidden very long and actually was a great host to his guest. He asked her if she wanted something to eat for breakfast and then asked me to please get her some orange juice. So sweet!! I actually got them to pose for a couple "first day of school" pictures together too....her mom was as excited about the pictures as I am. We loaded up and headed off to school. We got there and Liam & Rebekah went right into class, put their stuff away and got started on the work at their desk....just like that. They acted like old pros. It was amazing. I am a firm believe that the year in Pre-K there had a huge impact on them. They were so used to the routine that they didn't skip a beat. They knew what was expected of them and got to work. I spent the day at the school helping Ms. Shell get things organized and all of the first day things done and not once did I hear her talk to either of them about the rules. It is such a relief to know that your child is behaving and not being a problem child."

I am so glad that I can get this little "mini reports" about how Rebekah is doing in class. I'm really glad that Rebekah is doing so well in school and adjusting to all this change.

Yesterday was picture day at school. I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon, so I was able to pick Bekah up in the afternoon. I asked her how she smiled in her picture and she showed me her "frog smile." I really hope that she didn't really smile the frog smile, but I'm preparing myself for it. Last year that's the smile she gave in the fall pictures and that's the one that ended up in the yearbook ---- not the super-cute smile she had in her spring pictures. Oh well. We'll see.

Another funny thing is that Rebekah keeps calling the gym at the school "the garage." I'm not sure why, but it's making David and me chuckle.

On Monday night, Ms. Shell organized a get-together for the class at Chuck E. Cheese. Rebekah was SO excited about it. They had a great time and we got to meet some of the parents (and visit with Amy...who it is really hard to visit with because we're always keeping an eye out for our children!!).

First Full Day of Kindergarten

I am growing increasingly frustrated with Blogger. Sometimes it lets me post pictures and sometimes not. I had a bazillion photos on this post with a whole lot of journalling and this is all that's left. These pictures were taken by Amy O'Neal (Liam's mom). The first one is of Bekah at school. It will be used in a project that they will be making for the parents. The second picture is of the whole class.

The ministry of the Ingles

Here's some of the "spread" we had out for the jewelry party we threw for the Ingles (food, jewelry & other merchandise).

Dan & Sheryl Ingle are missionaries in Kathmandu, Nepal. They have been there eight years and live there with their nine year old daughter, Kristi, and their three adopted Nepali daughters, Shanti, Sharmila, and Junkeri.

Their business visa is set up for Studio TEN, a studio that produces indigenous worship music and videos as well as voice dubbing Joyce Meyers' teachings into Nepali. Upon arriving, they were constantly confronted with children and young women as risk. Girls are viewed as invaluable and are routinely sold into slavery or prostitution by their families. They started taking these girls in and giving them homes (along with homeless boys and helpless widows) and began to see that the need was overwhelming. They founded the Guardian Village Children's Home to provide a loving, stable environment for these children. They currently have 47 children living in the Children's Home and attending a local Christian school on scholarships.

To their dismay, they began to realize that with every child they rescued, it wasn't long until a younger sibling took their place---placed there by families desperate to gain some sort of income. The realized that in order to break the cycle of abuse, they needed to provide communities with other outlets to earn money (other than selling their children or sending them into the streets to beg).

The Ingles founded a community center that provided literacy training to women (95% of which are illiterate). Now, being able to read, these women who formerly were seen as little better than the family water buffalo, were now viewed as valuable to the family and able to earn a reliable income. In addition to the literacy training, the community center trains women in the making of handicrafts and trains men and women in the formation of micro-organizations by which they can ethically provide for their families. At Guardian Village Handicrafts, women are taught to make jewelry, rice paper journals, stationary and picture frames, as well as a few articles of clothing. The wholesale price of these handicrafts pays the women for their work. The profit from the sale of these handicrafts goes to fund the Children's Home. The goal is for every employee to be making a living wage. They judge a living wage by what a master carpenter would earn. If a master carpenter earns 250 rupees per day (about $5 - and a good income in Nepal), then the goal is to have that employee trained to make enough handicrafts to earn that (being paid generously for each product made). For example: They know that it is reasonable for a woman to be able to make ten necklaces a day, so she is paid 25 rupees per necklace.

They make the jewelry and other goods for export to the United States or other countries where these items are readily purchased. Through a network of friends and family members, the Ingles are trying to get the word out and get businesses to place orders for the jewelry---to keep these women employed and their families out of the vicious cycle that so many find themselves in. They are also willing to sell jewelry at wholesale value to anyone who wishes to use it as a mini-business for some extra income. They have sold to several people who set up booths at flea markets, etc. and make a nice profit. If you know of any stores or if you would be interested in helping this ministry in this way, please let me know and I will be more than happy to get information out as needed.

Studio TEN Ministries has a non-profit organization set up state-side, so any financial gifts made are tax deductible. If anyone is interested in providing a scholarship for the children in the children's home (so they can attend the local school), that is only $17/month. Student interns, who help run the children's home and who do the literacy training and other community outreach tasks, are also in need of scholarships (either $22 per month for community training in animal husbandry, basic first aid, and farming, as well as training in ways to spread the gospel and plant viable churches in remote villages, or $65/ month for all that I just mentioned, plus classes at a local university).

Please contact me if you are interested in any way. As you can see by the photographs, this jewelry is simply beautiful. And it is SO reasonably priced. Actually, it is a really great deal. From what I've seen, the majority of their jewelry pieces run from $8 to $25. Some are more expensive, but with good reason. They sell a gorgeous strand of large perfect black pearls for $40. A REAL steal!! And even more than getting a good deal, the purchase of these handicrafts keep women and children off the streets begging or selling themselves to make a living.

Saw this on the way to work this morning...

Forgive the foggy photo through the glare on my windshield.

And never mind the fact that I actually took a photo from my car on the way into work...gotta have that camera with me all the time! Never know when an opportunity like this will present itself!!

Anybody good with fish names?

We added these two oscars this weekend...just in time for the jewelry party we had for the Ingles. (I'll have to post more about that later.)

We're trying to think of names for them. We have previously had fish named Gill and Finn, so those are out. Any other clever names out there?

The girls wanted to name them Mommy and Daddy because we bought four goldfish to go with them. But we had to explain that the goldfish were not their children, but were really their food. =-D (The goldfish were gone before we went to bed the night we bought them.)

We're open to suggestions...

Poor gorilla!

Mammy & Pappy gave this talking gorilla to the girls some time ago. He makes real gorilla noises. But even this mighty gorilla could not fight off two little girls who dress him in a sparkling purple shirt (trimmed in feathers), a bracelet, and a pink tutu!

Lydia

The other day, my mom told me this funny story about the last time she was here for a visit. She said that she was holding Lydia's hand and Mom put her hand over Lydia's and said,

"Lydia, you sure do have pretty little hands. Grandma has old hands."

Lydia looked up at her and touched her cheek and said,

"And you have an old face too, Grandma."

Rebekah's first day of Kindergarten

David & I went to the Parent Teacher night on Monday night and Rebekah got the teacher that we were hoping she would (although we already kind of knew...). Ms. Shell is excited to have Bekah in her class and that makes us excited to have Ms. Shell as Bekah's teacher. Rebekah was VERY excited that Ms. Shell was going to be her teacher. She had her for Kindergarten Camp and loved her.

So, yesterday, Rebekah went to her first official (although half) day of Kindergarten. The night before, Bekah told me that she wanted two apples---one for her lunch and one to give Ms. Shell. (I'm not sure how she knew that you're supposed to give an apple to your teacher...) So I ran to the grocery store and picked up two pretty apples. Rebekah decided which one would be Ms. Shell's (the one with the taller stem). We were also very pleased that Ms. Shell was letting each child take care of their own school supplies, instead of putting them all in a big tub for the kids to share. This way, Rebekah learns to take care of her own things and won't have to use school supplies that someone else wasn't as responsible with. This made us feel better about the $50 or so we spent to get everything on the list. Ms. Shell said that the kids would be reading by the end of the year and that they will learn about sentence structure, capitalization and punctuation. I think we are really going to like Ms. Shell!

On Tuesday night, we got all of her things ready to take to school: her apple, Ms. Shell's apple, school supplies, an extra change of clothes to keep at school (just in case), a paint shirt, two pictures Bekah drew for Ms. Shell (one for home and one to keep at school --- very particular, this girl!), the mounds of forms that we had to fill out for her, and her new school outfit. Ms. Shell said that the kids would be doing a lot of painting and suggested that we send a paint shirt to school. Bekah helped me decorate it and was excited about it. She even got to wear it the first day. (I don't know why she's making that face in the picture!!)

On the way in from the school parking lot, we ran into Ms. Laura Lee, one of Bekah's pre-K teachers. Bekah gave her a big hug. It was so sweet. They chatted for a little while about their summers and about Bekah going to kindergarten. It was really nice.
We met Ms. Shell at the door to the classroom and Bekah couldn't wait to give her the apple. She got right in and found her desk. She is sitting across from Liam this year. I'm not sure if Liam is really okay with this, but Rebekah is thrilled. (Amy said that Liam said, "Aaawww! I have to sit next to her the whole YEAR?")

Rebekah was excited about making the little racoon that Ms. Shell had ready for them to work on.



She and Paola (a little girl she met at Kindergarten camp) set right to work.

 

Rebekah's first day of Kindergarten Photos

Here are a few pictures from Bekah's first day of Kindergarten.

Rebekah got to see Ms. Laura Lee, too. That was a special treat!

Scrapbooking injury

I know that you probably don't see scrapbooking as a dangerous past time, but let me tell you...there is potential for injury!

The other night I was working on a layout and using these cute little flower brads.

How could that have injured me, you ask? It's so cute and pretty and pink!

Well, I'll tell you how! That little brad poked up under my fingernail! OUCH! Major ouch! Still feeling it two days later OUCH!

At least I'm pleased with the finished product. So my injury was not in vain!! (Click to view the picture bigger.)

Catch up on photos...problems with Blogger

Blogger has been messing up and I haven't been able to post pictures. Here is the note that Ms. Shell gave Rebekah the day that she was at Kindergarten camp!

Here's a picture of Lydia looking cute right before we took Bekah to her camp.

And here's Rebekah marching into the school ahead of Lydia and me. She was SO ready to go!

Repost because Blogger screwed up my August 18 post!

What a CRAZY week!!

For those of you who haven’t heard from me…we’ve been a little busy (to say the least). In the past week, we have:·
--Dropped the girls off at the church so Victoria could watch the girls while I ran David to the ER with kidney stones
· Taken David to the ER with kidney stones (last Friday, Trip #1)
· Left David at the ER to run the kids from the church to the Lestarjettes (because the church was closing).
· Run back to the ER to find out that David does, in fact, have a kidney stone.
· Take David home to pass the kidney stone.
· Stayed up with David while he got sick every hour on the hour after taking pain medication.
· Run back to the ER on Monday morning (trip #2), after dropping the kids off at the Lestarjette’s (again---they are saints).
· Found out that the kidney stone had moved and that David should pass it in 24 hours.
· Run back to pick up the kids from the Lestarjettes and get David (groggy from the wonderful IV medicine) home to rest and try to pass the kidney stone without pain medicine other than ibuprophen because everything else makes him sick.
· Call the courthouse and tell them that I can’t be on the jury on Tuesday because I’m taking care of David.
· Run Rebekah to kindergarten camp.
· Run back to school to pick up Bekah a few hours later.
· Call APSU to pay for last semester and to find out about working out an installment plan.
· Run up to Kroger to fax paperwork to APSU.
· David’s feeling better, so I go to work on Wednesday morning.
· Mailed the birthday cards we had for Hope (that were ready on Monday) on her birthday, so she won't get them on time.
· At work, I got caught up on the 45 emails and several voicemails and tried to prepare for not being in the rest of the week.
· On my lunch hour, I drop a class, recalculate my grant and work out an installment plan for paying for my tuition next semester. I fax it to APSU.
· I order my books for my next two classes.
· David starts to have pain again and I run back home.
· I take Bekah to her assessment testing Wednesday afternoon.
· We get up Thursday morning and take David back to the ER, this time, with the girls in tow.
· The really nice nurse, Rickey (who sounds very much like a woman), gave the girls each a teddy bear, each two cups of jello, each two stickers, each a pack of crayons and each a coloring book. They were on cloud nine!
· David is admitted for surgery and as we say good bye and thank you to nurse Rickey, Rebekah calls him “Rinky Dinky!” I try not to die of embarrassment and take the girls to David’s hospital room.
· The surgery to remove the kidney stone was going to take two hours, so I called the saintly Lestarjettes to, again, see if they could watch the girls.
· While on the phone, I get a call from APSU that my figures do not match theirs and that I must call Financial Aid to refigure my grant since I dropped a class.
· I run the girls to the Lestarjettes.
· I get back before David is out of surgery and call financial aid to work out the grant situation, call work to tell them I won’t be in the next day.
· Greet David on his return from surgery (in a LOT of pain).
· Harp on the staff to get David some pain medication.
· He finally gets it and sleeps for several hours (and I do too).
· Repeatedly ask the nurses when we can speak to the doctor.
· Call financial aid and get everything straightened out with the grant.
· Call the cashier’s office and get everything straightened out with the installment plan and get my classes validated.
· Call the school to get their fax number and find out what time the parent teacher meeting is on Monday.
· Call the pediatrician’s office to have them fax Bekah’s shot record to the school so that she can start next week.
· Call and get a baby sitter for Monday night’s parent teacher meeting.
· Ask again, repeatedly, to talk to the doctor.
· David’s able to eat dinner!
· Doctor calls and says that they did NOT get the kidney stone out and that they pushed it back up in his kidney. Said he could stay overnight to control the pain and that he would meet with us in the morning between 7:00 – 7:30 a.m. Said he would have to make an appointment to see him on Monday morning in his office where they would do an x-ray and see if David had passed the stone. If not, then they would do a lithotripsy (which I’m just SURE I’m misspelling) to break up the stone in his kidney.
· I get really angry that we didn’t find out this information until 6:00 p.m., 6 ½ hours since David came out of surgery thinking that they had removed the stone.
· Called to courthouse to find out that I was scheduled for jury duty again.
· Called the saintly Lestarjettes to see if they could keep the girls ‘til bedtime. Of course, being the saints that they are, they agreed.
· Got David settled for the night.
· Called Gina Tate on the way to pick up the girls and she agreed to watch the girls for me (at 6:30 a.m.---what a blessing) so that I could be with David when he talked to the doctor and so that I could bring him home.
· Ran to pick up the girls at the Lestarjettes who also gave me pizza for dinner.
· Ran home, called David so that Rebekah could see that he wasn’t lonely at the hospital.
· Got a message from the pediatrician’s office about Bekah’s shot record.
· Got the girls in bed.
· Ate my pizza.
· Collapsed for the night.
· Got up at 5:45, got the girls dressed and out the door.
· Dropped the kids off with the Tates.
· Ran to the hospital and got the nurse to give David some more pain medication.
· Spoke with an apologetic doctor who explained exactly what happened in the surgery and why we need to wait until next week to finish all this up.
· Called the courthouse to say I couldn’t be on the jury.
· Called the pediatrician’s office because there was a problem with faxing Bekah’s shot record. Finally just had them fax it to me.
· Got new prescriptions (one of which David is allergic to). Got a new prescription for that one.
· We grabbed some milkshakes because David’s throat is killing him (tube down his throat during the surgery).
· Dropped off his prescriptions.
· Picked up the girls.
· Picked up the prescriptions.
· Got David home, medicine taken and in bed.
· Got the girls a nap.
· Called work to tell them I probably wouldn’t be in on Monday or Tuesday either.
· Made an appointment with David on Monday for another x-ray and Tuesday morning at SIX IN THE MORNING for the lithotripsy, which should last until 1:00 p.m.
· Tried to catch a nap myself, but ran out of time.

Whew! That’s out week in a very large nutshell.

Whew!

My funny girls

Today I had a little talk with Lydia about potty training. When she was at that Lestarjettes the other day, they said that she went in the toilet all day and didn't have any accidents. That is quite different than at home, where she only tells us she has to go about half the time. She just gets so involved in what she's doing that she doesn't go in the bathroom. So, now that I know that she fully understands the concept and can control her bowels, we had a little talk. I told her that if she went potty in her pull-up ("go potty on the princesses" that are pictured on her pull-up) that she would get a spanking.

Her response?

"If I go on Cinderella, then I will get a little bitty tiny spanking --- because the big ones hurt me. Okay?"

(I rushed right into the office and wrote that one down.)

Today, David told the girls that if they were good that they could get a treat tonight. Rebekah leaned over and said in my ear. "That sounds like a great idea!" I told her she should tell Daddy the same thing. Then she leaned over and said in my ear again, "I think we should just keep it to ourselves."

On another note that was NOT so funny. Lydia got hold of this adorable picture of Hope. I was right next to her and she was just saying, "Happy Birthday Hope! Happy Birthday Hope!" over and over again. Then, she started going, "Tickle, tickle, tickle! Tickle, tickle, tickle baby Hope!" I looked over and she had a pen and was "tickling" Hope with it! Aaaarrrgggghhh! Pen on her belly, pen on her nose, pen on her feet (all the good tickle spots, I guess).

And tonight, Rebekah asked, "Does the tooth fairy ever lose his teeth?"

Sit down and relax...this is a long one!

What a CRAZY week!!

For those of you who haven’t heard from me…we’ve been a little busy (to say the least). In the past week, we have:
· Dropped the girls off at the church so Victoria could watch the girls while I ran David to the ER with kidney stones
· Taken David to the ER with kidney stones (last Friday, Trip #1)
· Left David at the ER to run the kids from the church to the Lestarjettes (because the church was closing).
· Run back to the ER to find out that David does, in fact, have a kidney stone.
· Take David home to pass the kidney stone.
· Stayed up with David while he got sick every hour on the hour after taking pain medication.
· Run back to the ER on Monday morning (trip #2), after dropping the kids off at the Lestarjette’s (again---they are saints).
· Found out that the kidney stone had moved and that David should pass it in 24 hours.
· Run back to pick up the kids from the Lestarjettes and get David (groggy from the wonderful IV medicine) home to rest and try to pass the kidney stone without pain medicine other than ibuprophen because everything else makes him sick.
· Call the courthouse and tell them that I can’t be on the jury on Tuesday because I’m taking care of David.
· Run Rebekah to kindergarten camp.
· Run back to school to pick up Bekah a few hours later.
· Call APSU to pay for last semester and to find out about working out an installment plan.
· Run up to Kroger to fax paperwork to APSU.
· David’s feeling better, so I go to work on Wednesday morning.
· Mailed the birthday cards we had for Hope (that were ready on Monday) on her birthday, so she won't get them on time. =-(
· At work, I got caught up on the 45 emails and several voicemails and tried to prepare for not being in the rest of the week.
· On my lunch hour, I drop a class, recalculate my grant and work out an installment plan for paying for my tuition next semester. I fax it to APSU.
· I order my books for my next two classes.
· David starts to have pain again and I run back home.
· I take Bekah to her assessment testing Wednesday afternoon.
· We get up Thursday morning and take David back to the ER, this time, with the girls in tow.
· The really nice nurse, Rickey (who sounds very much like a woman), gave the girls each a teddy bear, each two cups of jello, each two stickers, each a pack of crayons and each a coloring book. They were on cloud nine!
· David is admitted for surgery and as we say good bye and thank you to nurse Rickey, Rebekah calls him “Rinky Dinky!” I try not to die of embarrassment and take the girls to David’s hospital room.
· The surgery to remove the kidney stone was going to take two hours, so I called the saintly Lestarjettes to, again, see if they could watch the girls.
· While on the phone, I get a call from APSU that my figures do not match theirs and that I must call Financial Aid to refigure my grant since I dropped a class.
· I run the girls to the Lestarjettes.
· I get back before David is out of surgery and call financial aid to work out the grant situation, call work to tell them I won’t be in the next day.
· Greet David on his return from surgery (in a LOT of pain).
· Harp on the staff to get David some pain medication.
· He finally gets it and sleeps for several hours (and I do too).
· Repeatedly ask the nurses when we can speak to the doctor.
· Call financial aid and get everything straightened out with the grant.
· Call the cashier’s office and get everything straightened out with the installment plan and get my classes validated.
· Call the school to get their fax number and find out what time the parent teacher meeting is on Monday.
· Call the pediatrician’s office to have them fax Bekah’s shot record to the school so that she can start next week.
· Call and get a baby sitter for Monday night’s parent teacher meeting.
· Ask again, repeatedly, to talk to the doctor.
· David’s able to eat dinner!
· Doctor calls and says that they did NOT get the kidney stone out and that they pushed it back up in his kidney. Said he could stay overnight to control the pain and that he would meet with us in the morning between 7:00 – 7:30 a.m. Said he would have to make an appointment to see him on Monday morning in his office where they would do an x-ray and see if David had passed the stone. If not, then they would do a lithotripsy (which I’m just SURE I’m misspelling) to break up the stone in his kidney.
· I get really angry that we didn’t find out this information until 6:00 p.m., 6 ½ hours since David came out of surgery thinking that they had removed the stone.
· Called to courthouse to find out that I was scheduled for jury duty again.
· Called the saintly Lestarjettes to see if they could keep the girls ‘til bedtime. Of course, being the saints that they are, they agreed.
· Got David settled for the night.
· Called Gina Tate on the way to pick up the girls and she agreed to watch the girls for me (at 6:30 a.m.---what a blessing) so that I could be with David when he talked to the doctor and so that I could bring him home.
· Ran to pick up the girls at the Lestarjettes who also gave me pizza for dinner.
· Ran home, called David so that Rebekah could see that he wasn’t lonely at the hospital.
· Got a message from the pediatrician’s office about Bekah’s shot record.
· Got the girls in bed.
· Ate my pizza.
· Collapsed for the night.
· Got up at 5:45, got the girls dressed and out the door.
· Dropped the kids off with the Tates.
· Ran to the hospital and got the nurse to give David some more pain medication.
· Spoke with an apologetic doctor who explained exactly what happened in the surgery and why we need to wait until next week to finish all this up.
· Called the courthouse to say I couldn’t be on the jury.
· Called the pediatrician’s office because there was a problem with faxing Bekah’s shot record. Finally just had them fax it to me.
· Got new prescriptions (one of which David is allergic to). Got a new prescription for that one.
· We grabbed some milkshakes because David’s throat is killing him (tube down his throat during the surgery).
· Dropped off his prescriptions.
· Picked up the girls.
· Picked up the prescriptions.
· Got David home, medicine taken and in bed.
· Got the girls a nap.
· Called work to tell them I probably wouldn’t be in on Monday or Tuesday either.
· Made an appointment with David on Monday for another x-ray and Tuesday morning at SIX IN THE MORNING for the lithotripsy, which should last until 1:00 p.m.
· Tried to catch a nap myself, but ran out of time.

Whew! That’s out week in a very large nutshell.

Whew! (again)

Blogger hates me.

Blogger must really hate me. I've been trying to post the pictures from Kindergarten Camp for two freakin' days!!

Here's to trying again.

Happy Birthday Hope!

I just want to wish my little niece a big HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!

Kindergarten Camp, Kidney Stones & Jury Duty

Rebekah had Kindergarten Camp today. She was so excited about going. And she looked so stinkin’ CUTE in her back to school clothes. Last night, Rebekah said she was worried that her Pre-K friends would not be in her class for kindergarten. I told her that she would probably know a few people in her class and that she could make new friends. But she said that she really wanted to be with her “first friends.”

Anyway, we set off to school this morning in a good mood. We got there a little early, got a good parking spot and headed into the cafeteria. After some informational stuff for the parents, they called all the kids down for story time. Rebekah cried when she left me, but she saw several of her Pre-K friends who encouraged her. A teacher took her by the hand and led her to her spot for story time. They read “Going on a Bear Hunt” on the LCD projector. It was pretty cool. All the kids were really getting into participating in the motions for the book (except for Bekah who was still a little upset).

After story time, the kids were put into groups based on what kind of name tag they had on and that was the Kindergarten Camp group they were assigned to. Rebekah cried again. I just gave her a quick kiss and left while the teachers were getting her to focus on the fun things they were going to be doing.

When I went to pick Rebekah up at 12:30, she was all smiles. Ms. Shell, her Kindergarten Camp teacher (who we hope will be her teacher for kindergarten as well), led her out to the car. She said that Rebekah had a WONDERFUL day and that she was such a help (especially when cleaning up). She even sent home a little note for Bekah.

Tomorrow, Rebekah will go to her assessment testing. The school places the kids with teachers whose teaching style will work best for them. We are hoping that Rebekah will be placed in Ms. Shell’s class (with Liam). Amy (Liam’s mom) said that her oldest had Ms. Shell for kindergarten and she was great. I’ve heard wonderful things about all of the teachers, so I’m not worried about that, but it would be nice if Bekah and Liam were in the same class (since Rebekah says that they are best friends---and they will be carpooling together).

I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to help take Bekah to Kindergarten Camp or not because I have been scheduled for jury duty for this week and next. I have to call every evening to find out if my panel has been selected for jury duty the next day. I called last night and I was supposed to be in jury duty this morning at 9:00 a.m., but I had to call and say that I couldn’t make it. This brings us to the other bit of excitement we’ve had this weekend. We’ve been to the emergency room twice since Friday because David has a kidney stone. I feel SO bad for him right now. He has been in so much pain. He was fine when he was on the IV, but the prescriptions that they gave him (even though he took them with anti-nausea medicine) made him SO sick. After being up all night Sunday night, we headed back to the ER Monday morning for more IV drugs and to get him rehydrated. He’s made progress and we hope that the whole ordeal will be done soon. So please be praying for David in the meantime. He slept most of the day today (the drugs knock him out) and we were able to get out of the house a little bit this evening, but he began feeling bad again after dinner. I’m not scheduled for jury duty tomorrow and will try to go into work, but it will depend on how David is feeling (and if he feels up to taking Bekah to her testing). We’ll see. Work can wait, I guess.

That’s about it for us.

Blogger is goofing on me and not letting me post any pictures!!! AAARRRGGGHHH! So, you’ll just have to imagine how cute Rebekah was today until I’m able to post the pictures.
Jayna

Happy Birthday to my FIL!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Hope you're having a great day!!

P.S. We tried to call you a few times, but couldn't catch you. Hope you're having a great one!!

OUCH!

Last night, Lydia was "helping" Jason hold the paper he was cutting and got her finger cut instead!!

It's a good thing that Greg is a paramedic because they had all the essential first aid stuff on hand. Lydia was a real trooper while David applied pressure and put ice on her finger. It took a while to get it to stop bleeding. We considered taking her to the ER for a stitch or two, but decided that her finger was so little that we didn't really think they would have room to stitch it. It's a pretty deep cut though. We finally got it to stop bleeding and David cleaned it with iodine and then we put some Neosporin on a stretchy band-aid and wrapped it pretty securely around her finger. Every time Lydia would bend her finger, the flap would open again and she would start bleeding again. So Renee gave us a splint (from their handy first aid kit) to keep her finger straight. Then Renee wrapped a Spiderman bandaid around the splint.

By then, Lydia had calmed down enough and went to show Rebekah, Jason and Alayna her "robot finger." They thought it was so cool and yelled "Whoa!"

We got the girls home and got them in bed. (In the midst of this, Rebekah was running a fever. We're still not sure why. She just told us that she ate too much junk food and that her body hurt all over.)

Around 12:15 a.m., I heard Lydia cry out. I went in there and she was crying in her sleep. I tried to calm her down, but she woke herself up saying "Ow...ow it hurts!" Poor thing! David got her some Tylenol and we tried to get her to go back to sleep, but she just kept crying. We did not turn on the lights in the room since Rebekah was snoring in her bed, but we finally had to turn on a little light next to Lydia's bed to see why Lydia was still crying. Apparently, in her sleep, Lydia bit the splint and caused it to clamp down more on her finger. (She doesn't remember doing this, but we could see the teeth marks on the splint. We think that's what woke her up.)

We took the splint off and David readjusted it and put it back on her finger. Lydia told us that she did not like Spiderman and that she did not want that bandaid on the splint anymore. Then she asked for a Dora band-aid. I was so sorry to tell her that we were out of Dora band-aids. She just kept quietly wimpering as David wrapped her finger back up. Then I got an idea. We had a Dora birthday card that Rebekah got for her birthday (and that I had saved for a scrapbook page). So I cut out a little Dora for Lydia and David taped it onto her splint. Once that was done, Lydia sighed a big sigh...

SIGH

And then relaxed and closed her eyes. Success!

This morning, the splint came off while Lydia was playing. The tip of her finger is a little purple and a little swollen. David put more Neosporin on it and we wrapped her finger back up (complete with the Dora, of course).
This is Lydia re-enacting the "ouch" moment for me this morning. Isn't she so funny?



And here's Lydia showing off the Dora we put on the splint.

Lookie lookie what I made!!

Found a link on a friend of a friend's blog to a woman who makes these little "families." So last night I gave it a try.

Check out my picture perfect family!! *grin*

Budding artist

This is a picture that Rebekah drew of David using the water hose to put water into their outdoor toybox so that they could have a "kiddie pool" one day while they were playing in the yard. Click here to see what she is referring to.

I must say that I was rather impressed.

The County Fair

We went to the county fair this weekend. We got a few cute pictures, but to be honest, we were a little disappointed in the fair. We built it up really big for the girls, but it wasn't what we thought it was going to be. There weren't many animals and there weren't many booths. And David got accused of stealing his own sunglasses. (Needless to say THAT didn't make him very happy.) They had a little kids' co-op experience, but everything in there was fake and the girls got a little frustrated, but made do. They also had a big canvas for all of the kids to paint for the Williamson County Cultural Arts Center. But when I told the girls to pick something that wouldn't get them dirty, the girl that was manning the canvas said, "Not get dirty? That's no fun." I was a little annoyed because the girls were wearing nice clothes that I didn't want ruined. I let my girls paint, but only in their painting clothes (or using water-color paint). Unless you're going to offer a two-year old a smock, it's not unreasonable to try to find something that won't permanently ruin her dress. But, I digress....

We did see a cool thing where these dogs had a diving show. The girls got a kick out of that. =)

That's it for us for now. I'll post more later.

Happy Monday.
Jayna

Pork Chops

Rebekah asked what we were having for dinner last night. I told her that Daddy was fixing pork chops. Rebekah said, "Those are my favorite kind of chicken...they are kinda like a meat!

Lydia's Abuela

The other night at bedtime, Lydia and I were looking through a picture album and we came across this picture. Lydia began telling me everyone in the picture from the right to the left:
"There's me...
and you...
and Bekah
and Grandma
and GG...

and that's my abuela."

Whoa.

But that makes sense.

For those who aren't following my thought train...

"Abuela" is Spanish for "grandma." Dora calls her grandma "abuela." Lydia sees my Aunt Judi as one of her grandmas. That makes so much sense since Aunt Judi helped raise me and Aunt Judi loves my girls as much as any grandma would.

I just thought it was sweet and wanted to share.

We love you, Aunt Judi "Abuela"!

P.S. In case you were wondering, this is what Dora's abuela looks like: