New Friends

This week, Kathryn made a friend. Of course Lucy has always been tolerant of Kathryn, but this week Kathryn focused her efforts on making Lucy happy and trying to be a friend. So far, so good.

Artists in the making

Jason and the kids painted today while I was a "party pooper" (Jason's words) and sat at my desk to work. From what I heard, they were having fun, and I even heard Kathryn say, "Daddy, you're not mean today." From the mouths of babes...

Personalization

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but when you get something (a new car, a new roof, etc.), you begin to see just how many other people have the exact same thing as you. There are 3 white Impalas just at our church!

So, I decided to personalize my Impala. Of course that began with the Awana plate on the front (and man, I don't know how many times I tried to unlock the wrong car before I put that thing on!)

Now I have moved on to bumper stickers (which I just can't bring myself to actually put on my bumper). I have been collecting them for a couple of months now, waiting until the next time I washed the car to put them on. Yeah, it takes a few months for that to happen!

So, here is the process, which Jason captured so I would have blogging material.

I guess the next step is to get a couple of those magnet thingies with clever sayings...or maybe a couple of bullet holes??

(and BTW, yeah, I know I look pretty rough in the photos)

The Beach

We are all nearly crazy with anticipation for our beach trip. This will be our first week long vacation as a family, and we almost can't contain our excitement! I made this "calendar" for Kathryn so she can count the number of days herself. We color in a number each morning so she knows what day we're on now.

Catching up

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged! Jason being home has caused some shifting in routines, but I think we are finally settling into something that works for everyone. Jason likes using the computer for photo editing and playing games, and since those are some of the few things he can do during his recovery, we just have to work around each others' schedules.

Tomorrow is the 3 week mark since Jason's surgery; the first big "post-surgery" milestone. For three weeks, Jason has not been allowed to bend at the waist, twist his torso, lift anything that isn't really light, or of course sit upright for longer than 20 minutes. Although the "why" was never really explained to us, we assume that has to do with healing muscle and healing disc. I'm sure it is more difficult for a muscle to heal when that muscle is being used often.

While Jason will be "allowed" to do anything he wants tomorrow, I'm not sure he will do much of it by choice. It still hurts to get up and down from sitting - although not as much as it did. He is mostly off the vicadin, and has been using Advil for daytime pain for a few days. There were several days when he used nothing at all. I guess to prove he is manly and can take the pain... or something. I'm glad to say I talked him into at least trying Advil instead of vicadin, since he really didn't want to stay on that longer than necessary. I don't like to nag him, but did about that. He finally tried it, and it kind of worked. At least the advil helped some, and it isn't a strong narcotic.

So, now begins the process of slowly getting back full use of his back. He can definitely feel it when he has done too much, so I'll leave it to him to make good judgements of what he can and can't (or should and shouldn't) do. After getting groceries Saturday, he carried in a few of the lighter bags, but realized the next day he probably shouldn't have, and from memory, I think it was only maybe 5 or 6 bags that he brought in. In addition to the walking we did over the weekend, the carrying was not wise.

It seems as though his recovery is going pretty normally. We go for his first post-op check up on the 1st, so we'll see how the doctor feels about things then.

Now, to catch up on the things we've been doing the last couple of weeks...

The kids

Unfortunately, the kids have not been doing much at all. I was really busy at work the last 2 weeks, and Jason was very involved with picture stuff, so they mostly entertained themselves. We try to do board games, or book reading or something fun together after dinner, but during the day while I work, they play in their rooms together or watch movies. Julian had what we thought to be a stomach bug recently. After a few days, it seemed to be working through, but then his throat got sore, and he developed a rash all over - an itchy rash too! Poor thing. So, back to the doctor we went, and although his strep test came back negative, they went ahead and gave him antibiotics, since it had been almost a week and his symptoms were not improving - obviously it was something in addition to a virus. He finished the antibiotics just in time to take a trip with Grandma and Grandpa, which I'll write about at a later date. They spent the weekend together though, and had a lot of fun (although not much sleep - thanks to one homesick little girl, and to be fair, according to her, grandpa making noise in the night!)

This is one thing Kathryn likes to do: be a doctor. I love it - maybe one day she'll be the real thing ...

On this day, Julian thought they should cut up paper and glue it back together to make various shapes. It actually started as stapling paper pieces together, but Julian and a stapler make me nervous, so we switched to glue sticks! I also gave him some aluminum foil for some shininess, and they went to town! I think they worked on this for about 90 minutes before I made them clean up for lunch.

Jason

There has been a lot of this lately:

This and black sheets draped over something or poster board on tables in different lighting - or the kitchen table covered in various things we have in the house that might make good photos.

And don't worry - he's not really bending...at least that's what he says!

He has been working on stock photography - in the picture above (although you can't see it because of my poor lighting!) he is taking pictures of crayons:

Very artistic, no?


I won't post any more of his stock photos because his goal is to master lighting and composition so he can eventually sell them. So I can't give any freebies! (:

Our quiet weekend


While the children were with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, Jason and I took a trip to the river to see if he could get some good pictures. We misjudged the time though. The spot we visited is for boat access, and Friday evening at dusk must be a popular time to fish. One boat after another came to get in the water, so we didn't get to use the little dock for our purposes. Although we did get offered a ride with one shirtless man who had obviously been drinking a bit before he came to fish. He looked pretty disappointed that we didn't want to go with him.



I took these pictures - I don't know if Jason has gotten his off his camera yet...

I believe Jason said the vine snaking up the tree is poison ivy! It was everywhere, and I kept my distance. I've had more contact with poison ivy than I care to recently.

It was so quiet in our house this weekend with the kids being gone. We did a lot of reading and a lot of puzzles - what an old married couple, huh?

And the highlight of my weekend

Since we didn't have the children, we thought it would be nice to have dinner with Courtney and Billy. We never get to see them sans children, and Kathryn is always climbing over Billy when she is with him. They came over for dinner Saturday night and we had a wonderful evening. We got to see Jackson who is almost a month old! He has grown so much and has changed since we saw him a few weeks ago. I'm glad he came to see us since we haven't been able to drive the distance to see him since he was first born.

What a beautiful little boy

He makes the funniest faces!

And the proud uncle.

It was nice to visit with Courtney and Billy and remember back to when our kids were babies. The days of no sleep, changing a thousand diapers a day, barely having time or energy to eat and shower...they were so long ago, but they seem so recent. I know Courtney and Billy don't feel this way now, but those days are precious, and I actually do miss them. I miss walking 10 miles a day up and down the hallway to calm a crying baby. Or singing nonsense to them to calm them down. I guess they are more precious knowing they are definitely in the past - and can be fully enjoyed as memories now! They were pretty tired but I thought they were doing really well. I can see they are becoming great parents and will get better and better every day. Jackson is one lucky baby to get them as his parents!

That's all the catching up for now (like that wasn't enough). I'll try to stay more updated, but it gets harder and harder to blog a lot. We may be running out of blogging material...I'll have to work on that!!!

Butterfly garden

Zinnias are the best butterfly flower.

Well, maybe not THE best, but the best we have for sure. I harvested the seeds for these flowers from last year's crop of zinnias, and some really neat things have happened. I tried to get mostly red flower seeds - the red was very pretty. What I ended up with was some interesting cross-pollinated flowers: pink with yellow spots, yellow with orange spots, pinkish/orangish combos that weren't there last year. Very unique! And the butterflies love them! It has been an added bonus that just when both the flowers and butterflies are getting bigger, Jason is at home to see them - and take pictures of them. I believe this will be an annual thing for us - who knows what the flowers will look like after three or four generations.

Surgery update

The surgery went well on Tuesday. Jason got in close to the time we were told the surgery would take place, although I can't say that made the waiting any easier. I left Jason with a nurse at 9:30 and didn't see him again until 2:30 (I think - times are kind of blurring together). His Mom and Dad and I waited and waited and waited, it seemed like forever. Our wonderful preacher came to sit with us - it felt like for a couple of hours, but it might not have been that long. I really started to lose my mind a little when we were told he had gone back to surgery, so things from there are not completely clear for me....

According to his doctor, everything in the surgery went smoothly; it looked just like it did on the MRI he had done a week or so before surgery. The doctor removed the piece of disc that had been pushing against the nerve. To do this, they have to scrape a small piece of vertebrae to make space for the instrument to get through to do the "scooping". We believe this (in addition to the actual incision) is responsible for most of the recovery pain Jason is having.

Jason spent all day Tuesday in the hospital and came home Wednesday morning. The children stayed with my sister Monday evening, and I went to collect them Tuesday evening. This meant leaving Jason alone in the hospital overnight, which I was not crazy about, but I didn't know what else to do....next time I'll listen to my Dad who said, "You should have called Dad"!!!!! Wise words - for real.

The night Jason spent in the hospital was not pleasant for him. His nurse was not helpful at all. He stayed in bed - on his back (against doctor's orders) - all night, and the nurse did not bring him his promised pain medicine for hours. I have always heard people say that a person shouldn't be left in the hospital alone if they can't take care of themselves (you know get up and walk, etc). Well, I have no plans to ever do so again. Poor Jason. I got there about 8:30 on Wednesday morning, and he was up for the first time since I had left him (at about 8:30 the night before). He was in a lot of pain, and was still waiting on his morning dose of pain medicine.

All that said, he left the hospital and came home. The car ride was a little rough, but after collecting the kids from a friend's house, we got him home and as comfortable as we could. He has a prescription for some good drugs, but he ended up being allergic to one, so we had to switch it around.

Since being home, things have gone as well as can be expected. He is in a lot of pain from the surgery. His leg pain is completely gone, although part of his leg and one toe is still numb (and may stay numb permanently, from what we understand). Numbness is much better than excruciating, shooting pains though. The doctor told us before surgery that they were not going to repair the nerve; they were only removing the disc from touching the nerve, so there may still be some lasting effects. They could be temporary, or they could stay. We'll just have to wait to see.

Jason is up and moving around most of the time. He has already gotten some great pictures of flowers, of the kids, etc. As long as he doesn't have to bend at the waist, twist or lift to get the shot, he can take as many pictures as he wants! The pain is still pretty significant, but everyone we've talked to have said it will be one week to 10 days before he'll feel a lot better from the incision - and we're only on day 4. So overall, he is doing really well. We have taken a walk after dinner each night since he's been home, aiming to increase how far he walks each day. Yet another reason I wish there were more flat places around our house...

The kids and I are doing all we can to help him and make him comfortable. There are very few things he can't do for himself, but we do those things for him as he needs them. I don't have any other interesting stories or pictures, since we've been pretty focused on surgery and recovery. We're in the process of making a new schedule and routine, so I'm sure some interesting stories will come out of that! Thanks everyone for the prayers I know were offered up for Jason. Please keep it up through his recovery. It's going to be a long 8 weeks for him.

Upcoming surgery, zoo trip

If you want to read about lumbar disk issues, here is a link I found helpful. Jason's issue is that his L5 disk has ruptured (because of degenerative disc disease), and is pushing on the nerves running to his right leg. He has a lot of pain and some numbness down that leg. His surgery will be to remove whatever part of the disk is pressing against the nerve. His surgery will be this Tuesday at 11:30. His recovery time is 3 weeks with no bending, lifting, stretching, etc., and then another 5 weeks or so of slowly adding activities. He will be out of work for at least 8 weeks, which will put him at the beginning of September for going back to work. For the first 3 weeks, he will also not be allowed to sit for more than 20 minutes at a time, which will limit where we can go for that time.

Since we will not be able to take any "long" trips for a while, we decided to go to the zoo yesterday to take advantage of the family pass I bought several weeks ago. We wanted to do something fun with the kids because this week will probably not be a lot of fun for them (once they're home from spending the night and visiting). Jason wanted to have some pictures to play around with in photo shop during his recovery time, and he did get plenty. It was hard on him, but he made a point to sit down every 5 minutes or so, and we got through all of the Africa side of the zoo. (And just so everyone knows - it was not my idea to take a picture of each child on each sculpture - Julian actually asked to have his picture taken on everything. )

Jackson

We were so happy to finally get to meet little Jackson on Monday. The proud Mom and Dad have all the details here, but I thought I would post our extra pictures from different perspectives.

Independence Day

Friday evening, we went to see fireworks, which were set off at a high school here in town. We normally sit in one of the grassy areas near the mall parking lot to enjoy the show. This year, we were smart and took a sleeping bag instead of a sheet, so the prickly drought-dry grass didn't poke us through the blanket - this was a very nice bonus. Julian and Kathryn continued their tradition of circling our blanket at top speed, entertaining our neighbors as well. This year, their audience included a young man who seemed especially amused; he was about 18 months old, and he cackled each time our kids came to his side of the blanket. He eventually toddled over and joined us on our blanket, until his embarrassed parents came and collected him. He was adorable though. The show didn't seem to go as smoothly this year as it has in the past, and I have to say, it was on the thin side as far as the actual fireworks went. But, of course, our children didn't care. They loved it. Our pictures are not the best, but I thought they were okay considering the lighting, etc. and our camera....

Julian's mohawk

Ok, so it can hardly be called a mohawk since it is not even 1/2" long, but it's probably the closest he'll get. We went all the way down to a #2 guard this time, so his hair is pretty darn short - almost as short as uncle Billy's!

Check your sunscreen

Skin Deep is a group that tests the safety and effectiveness of cosmetic products (including sunscreen). 143 sunscreens have made their recommended list for being safe and effective. Check yours to see if it's there:

Skin Deep

(It turns out my No Ad was on the recommended list and my Water Babies was not....go figure)

Update: I went and bought #45 on the list - the CVS 45+ with zinc oxide for face, nose and ears. It was only $6.99 for a tube. It has no odor and really is greaseless. I guess we'll see how it performs in the sun....

FINK day, June

We had our monthly get together, which has come to be known as "FINK day", at Dad and Sherri's house this weekend. It was the first time we got to use the pool this year, since it was pretty cool outside the last time we got together in early May. Julian and Evan have lost any fear they had of water - they jumped and splashed and had a really good time. Kathryn did a great job also. She laid on a noodle the whole day, swimming from one end of the pool to the other. She would not let that noodle go for anything! Baby Vivian was able to join us for a little while outside of her nap time, and her cousins gathered around her like bees to honey! She seemed to enjoy them as much as they enjoyed her.

Unfortunately, we had sunscreen failure, in spite of lathering it on pretty thickly. We used "No Ad" SPF 60 on shoulders and back and Water Babies SPF 30 on their faces. Their faces did not get burned; their shoulders got REALLY burned. I'm tossing the bottle of No Ad, and getting another bottle of the Water Babies (since our bottle didn't make it home with us...). Julian's shoulders are SO burned (and Evan's too). We put Sarna on last night until Jason got back from the grocery store with aloe and gave him some Tylenol. Poor little guy, I guess he'll just have to go shirtless for a couple of days until the soreness goes away. Somehow Kathryn didn't get burned; she just got really tan. It's frustrating because we're so careful about sunscreen. The bottle of No Ad was from last year, and I remember hearing something, somewhere that sunscreen only lasts a year. I didn't believe it, but maybe it's true???

Anyway, we had a great time at the pool, and a nice visit with Randy and Emily after. After getting all the kids in bed, Randy and Emily introduced us to a card game called NERTS (I have no idea if that is spelled correctly). We visited Westminster Presbyterian on Sunday morning and really enjoyed Emily leading the "contemporary" praise music. We also enjoyed the sermon, which was about serving God where He has placed you.


(We were convinced we would get a call while we were in Charlotte that baby Jackson was on his way, but unfortunately Courtney is still waiting. Today is her due date, and boy do I hope today is the day - I know she is more than ready!)

VBS - Family night

VBS wrapped up on Thursday evening with a family night celebration. As always, the kids were excited to show everyone what they had learned through the week. And we learned that the boys barely lost to the girls in the offering competition they participated in all week, which meant Pastor Lloyd got a pie in the face. If the girls had lost, Juli would have gotten the pie. She did get a pie in the face last year, and Pastor Lloyd is the one that did it, so it seems all is even now.

And on the way out of the sanctuary, I saw this cute little bird. Apparently, it has been nesting there for quite a while, but I normally don't go out the front door, so I had never seen it.

Outrigger Island

This week has been Vacation Bible School at church. Our theme this year is "Outrigger Island - living God's unshakable truth". All of the children are "wave riders", and we adults are "island guides". Everything is very Hawaiian (which is pretty convenient, since Dollar Tree's summer special seems to be Hawaiian luau type decorations).

The past 2 years I was the crafts leader; it was wonderful, but SO stressful. This year I was actually not planning on doing anything (except sitting at home and enjoying the A/C), but in the end I agreed to help with the youth. I have not worked with youth since TEC about 10 years ago, when I was barely out of my teens myself. I have to say, it has been wonderful! It has been such a nice change to not have to worry about behavior stuff so much. The youth already know they need to listen to the story, be quiet as they're walking, and keep their hands to themselves.

Our church's preacher, Pastor Lloyd , was my co island guide - thank goodness. It really worked out well that he was able to teach the lesson about Jesus being the only way to heaven - I know I would not have done as well as he did, since that is, you know, his job...he's kinda used to it! I think I did OK on my 2 lessons, but I get so nervous, and I'm just out of practice...One of the things I really like about teaching is the research behind it, the learning enough to teach it. The kids seem to have gotten the message when I taught, so I'm thankful for that. It has gotten me thinking about teaching again, but that's a big commitment. I had decided not to make any more commitments for service to my church anytime soon, and I think that was the right decision, but IF I ever come to terms with my church issues (which is a big if), this is something I'll be considering....

So, all that to say, I have not gotten many pictures. Every time I think to get the camera out, the kids are moving to the next thing, so I've missed most of the pictures I wanted to get. I did get the 2 above, and will try to get some tonight at the family night presentation.

And I took this video last night - the kids go back to the sanctuary while they wait for their parents to come get them. They're singing the songs from the week and doing the "interpretive movements" - so don't worry, they're not dancing in church!

Julian

We went to get Julian's pictures taken on Tuesday. I don't have those back yet (although they came out really well!), but I did take a picture before we left....

Today

We just got back from the doctor... Kathryn now has a "secondary infection" from the cold she has had this past week - sinus or nasal or upper respiratory - he pretty consistently avoids saying what kind of infection. The wonderful news is her ears look great; there is no trace of infection, and this is the first time she has been on antibiotics in more than 6 months! So we can actually go back to the milder antibiotics, which will be easier on her stomach. Those super-antibiotics are rough on a little one. So, Julian had his infection 2 weeks ago, now Kathryn does - who is next? I hope no one since VBS starts Sunday and I'm teaching!

Just so there would be a picture included - here are the kids today. Kathryn was mad at me because she got a spanking when we got home from Walmart from picking up her prescription.

Kathryn

These were taken about a month ago when Kathryn had a preschool teacher workday. Julian's are scheduled for next week, so once I get those back I can finish sending these out....

For Ronda....

When we were talking earlier today, I told Ronda about my picture idea. I really like displaying pictures Jason and I have taken, and have gotten where I'll just stop in Dollar Tree or Big Lots and get the cheapest picture frame I can find in the right size - who cares what color or texture it is. I think I do have 2 that match exactly but they were given as gifts... I had all of these frames just randomly placed on a wall in our bedroom.

When I get stressed, I either clean, organize or just rearrange. Yesterday, I did all 3 in our room, including rearranging all the random pictures. I thought it turned out pretty well, and my lines were fairly straight, which is a major accomplishment for me! I did have to leave a few pictures out to get them all to fit, but I like it (and I know Jason is doing his best to not grit his teeth at all of the holes I put in the walls - over and over again!)

More Father's Day pictures

This was just minutes after Jason and Kathryn got up - Julian was actually laying in his doorway, waiting for us to get up, so he could be the first to say Happy Father's Day.

Jason turns 32

We celebrated the day on Saturday, although his birthday actually fell on Sunday - Father's Day - this year. It would have just been too much to celebrate both in one day.

Earlier in the day, we made a trip to Ronda's house to celebrate Brittany's graduation. I was not able to see the actual event because tickets were very limited, but I was really happy to get to see her for a lunch afterwards.

The kids always end up in Evan's bedroom (or in Julian's if they're at our house), and they always make a HUGE mess!

When we got home, we had some Little Caesar's pizza and I made Jason's cake. No close ups of the cake, but it turned out Ok for being rushed, and it tasted great!

I'm a little bummed that I can't find the card Julian made for Jason. It was so funny - on the front, it said "Congratulations, you're 32 - THAT'S OLD!" and then he signed it inside. It must have ended up with the recycling, but I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Fathers' Day

We decorated a shirt for Jason for Fathers' Day this year. Julian and Kathryn did the hand prints (they picked their own colors). Julian picked out the colors for the text on the front, and they also picked out which picture to use (the text and picture were printed from our own printer and ironed on - coolest thing ever!!!) The kids were a little disappointed that they didn't get to paint more, but I did want something Jason might actually wear - we'll have to wait to see how that goes ....

Our House

This morning, I've been mowing the grass, trimming, weeding and just cleaning up a little around the outside of the house. It has been so hot lately, I've been putting a lot of the work off, but have gotten most done this week (not that it's been much cooler, but at least it was not 100+). I thought it looked really nice. I'm glad no one will see inside the house - it does not look as nice. That is my project for this afternoon!

Summer begins

Summer has officially started in our house. Friday was Kathryn's last day of school and Tuesday was Julian's. Julian ended the year with an end of year celebration - complete with blow ups and lots of games. On Friday, Julian received the following awards: an engraved medal for being on the "A" honor roll all 4 quarters, a certificate for having perfect attendance for the first time in 2nd grade, and another certificate for being 2nd runner up in Accelerated Reader (AR) points for the entire 2nd grade. I am so proud of him. I wish I was there to see him get these things, and am really annoyed with myself for not asking if he was going to get awards that day...and a little with his teacher for not letting me know....

It has been a busy week with work stuff and getting ready for Fathers' Day and Jason's birthday, so nothing interesting to catch up on, but I did take these pictures a few days ago for a project we've been working on:

Julian seems to be extra sensitive to bright light and has a really difficult time keeping his eyes open and not making that squinty face if the sun is up at all (not even shining directly on him!). These were the best 3 of about 30 pictures - the other 27 had someone blinking, someone frowning, someone yelling, etc.

Superman!

For Christmas, Kathryn got a pretty fuzzy pink robe. Julian seems to like it more than she does and wears it fairly often, so, to keep him from going around in a fuzzy pink robe, we got him this very manly Superman robe!

We ordered it from Amazon.com, and Julian thought it was the neatest thing when a package came from the UPS man just for him!

Now our next step is to get him some manly dress up clothes to keep him out of Kathryn's dresses...