A visit

Courtney and Jackson came for a visit last week. I'm so glad she and Jason got to spend some time together while I was in class, and I'm glad I did get to see her and Jackson for a little while before they had to head back home.

The kids did great with Jackson, and even Julian wanted to hold him and touch his feet and hair. I can't wait to see the 3 of them (and maybe more added along the way) grow up together and be playmates once Jackson is a little more mobile. I hope they play together and like each other as much as my cousins and I did growing up...

First day of school

Monday was Kathryn's first day of Kindergarten and Julian's first day in 3rd grade.

Kathryn was very excited to see her teacher again and to see what school would be like.

And Julian was excited to get back and see his friends. 2 of his good friends from last year are in his class again.

We walked Kathryn to class, but no one was there! We were pretty late... We met her class coming from the cafeteria, and she fell right into line and went to class. They stagger days for everyone, so there were only 5 kids there on her first day. She has not been back to school yet, but tomorrow she'll go along with her whole class, and everyday after that. Unfortunately, she is not as excited to go back tomorrow as she was the first day. She said she wants to stay home with me. I told her I won't be home either, and neither will Daddy (he's going back to work tomorrow!). I know she'll enjoy herself once she's there, but it's hard to make her do something she doesn't really want to do. I'm going to miss our time together....

I'm in school now too, and things are going pretty well. I am relieved that my classes this semester don't seem to be as demanding as last semester (so far). Of course this is only the 2nd week, so there's still a lot of time in this semester for things to get crazy. But so far, it's been wonderful - the only homework I've had is reading and studying my notes. Much better than the 2 or 3 hours each night last semester between math and Spanish! I did have my first speech for my public speaking class - I'm glad it's over with and I am already dreading my next speech, which will be in late September, I think. I'll be glad when this class is done!

It's not school, but Jason will also be going back to work tomorrow. He got a good report from the doctor at his 2nd post-op visit this week, so he will be on "light duty" for 2 weeks and then after that, no restrictions at all on what he should do. I'm worried about him going back, but I guess it was inevitable....

So we all seem to be getting back to somewhat normal routines, and our family summer break is officially over tomorrow.

Videos from the beach...

At the pool at our condo:



On the beach:

The beach

We returned from a week at Carolina beach last weekend. Here are some pictures from our trip



We were really impressed with Carolina Beach. The stretch of beach in front of our condo complex was not crowded at all, and it was very clean. There was very little trash on the beach and no firework residuals.

Most days of our vacation, we spent our time playing in the ocean and the sand (Kathryn's preference), and swimming in the pool. We did take one day trip to Fort Fisher, which was just down the road from us. We rode the ferry from Ft. Fisher to Southport and back, visited the aquarium while we were there and did a short hike into the Ft. Fisher state park. It was a lot of fun, but very tiring. We also spent one evening at a local park, which had a lake with paddle boats. Why do I always forget how much work it is to move one of those things?!

I was a little bummed that our trip fell at the same time as the Olympics, because I really look forward to watching them. We did watch some of the swimming, and the synchronized diving was amazing!

Jason took some great pictures while were there. I've been trying to convince him to start his own blog and post his work, but we'll have to give that some time.

The kids today

Just because....

Julian cooks dinner

I jokingly asked Julian what he was cooking for dinner the other day, and he immediately ran to the kitchen and started getting things together to make hot dogs (our standard quick meal). He proceeded to cook dinner - by himself mostly. All I did was strain the pasta and tell him when to add things and when to stir. He did a great job!

Our winged visitors

We have one of the "lucky" yards that have become the home of a group of Easter Cicada Killer wasps .

The first year we noticed them, we were pretty nervous. They are big - over an inch long - and there are a lot of them. The first year (2003, to the best of my memory) there were hundreds flying around the backyard. We got Lucy the next year, and she has helped control their population - in our yard at least. She digs them up and eats them. This is one time she does not get in trouble for digging holes! We are down to less than 30, I would guess.

They don't sting, they don't bite, unless you try to catch them in your hand or something. From what I understand, they'll sting then, but it is not the typical wasp sting - much less potent. They do charge, though. They'll fly at you and run into you, I guess to get you to move away from their nest. Pretty annoying when I'm trying to mow the grass.

They are actually pretty cool - they dig holes in the ground for their eggs, hunt cicadas (locusts), and take them into their holes for the next generation to eat when they hatch. We pretty much leave them alone unless they won't leave us alone.

This is a picture of one trying to get the cicada to its hole...

No story, just pictures

"Can I play too?"

Cute pictures of Lucy

School

The beginning of the school year is almost here. I start on the 18th, and the kids start on the 25th. We took advantage of the tax free weekend last night. Both kids seem to be pleased with their new book bags and lunch boxes, but Kathryn has told us several times today that she doesn't need baby wipes!

Crabgrass!

First, let me say, I am no fescue elitist by any means. In general, if it's green and covers the dirt, it is a welcome addition in my yard. But CRABGRASS! It has become the most annoying - and energy draining part of mowing the grass lately. This picture is what it looks like after 8 days.

8 days!!!! It's like I'm growing wheat in my backyard. And you can't just mow it - you have to go left, then right, then back, then forward. And you still don't get half of those annoying stalks (which grow miraculously fast). I end up mowing the grass twice as much as if it were regular grass growing. If it weren't for allergies, ticks, and critters, I'd just let the "grass" grow. What a pain!

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.