IKEA

Lincoln had his MRI yesterday.  I have to say him coming out of sedation was worse than the seizures.  He just didn't understand that he wasn't able to run around like he's used to doing.  I was completely unprepared for all of that!  I had to giggle when we walked into ARA and there in the corner was a table & toys from IKEA.  It seems to be a recurring theme.  Granted, IKEA kids stuff is cute and cheap.  You can't beat cute & cheap.  But, it still reminded me of where this little storm started.  As I thought about it, these verses came to my mind.......


So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”   Joshua 4:4-7

There are places that are reminders from infertility..... 38th & Lamar area.  Dr. Seeker's office, Dr. Vaughn's office & Seton are all there.  Infertility treatments and eventually the births of 2 of our children.  Even Seton reminds me of my Daddy's first heart attack and visiting him & Mom on the weekends while he was there.  My two oldest being born there redeemed the location and replaced the sad memories with happy ones.  Central Market brings back memories of waiting for IUIs, OB appointments and bringing the kids there for Biscuit Brothers concerts.  And now we have IKEA and all it's fun stuff.... another reminder of God's goodness & faithfulness.  Without fear, we will go there again.  We will eat when kids eat free and we will sit at the same table where all this began.

Christmas Morning

The big reveal.....

Oh Christmas Tree

Last year I bought wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby.  I have always been a snob about having Hallmark paper.  I love the weight of the paper and the cutting lines on the back.  I don't even remember why I decided to buy paper at Hobby Lobby but I'm so glad I did.  It has the same weight & cutting lines but it's cheaper and they have a much bigger selection.  Last year I also bought Toy Story paper for Lincoln & princesses for the girls.  Is it bad that I hid those behind the piano since they didn't match my red, black & white theme?  Can't wait to wrap presents next year and add a lime green to the mix.  I bought more after Christmas so we'll be having the same theme for several years.  Oh, and the added benefit of all of the paper I bought is that I can use it during the year.

Back to the fun stuff

I LOVE Pioneer Woman's Blog.  When she did a cookie decorating weekend at her ranch and posted the pictures & recipes, I decided we had to try cookies with royal icing.  My icing skills aren't what I'd like them to be and ziploc bags just aren't that efficient in comparison to pastry bags & tips.  Oh yeah, and royal icing isn't that yummy.  Next year, we'll stick to regular sugar cookies, buttercream icing & sprinkles.

A little bit more about this week....

In talking to a nurse friend last night, I think I may have solidified why we're not worried. From a spiritual perspective, it's because God gives peace. Some of my favorite verses, especially when I'm in the middle of a freak out are 2 Timothy 1:7 & Philippians 4:6-8. God has given us a sound mind, not one of fear. He has guarded our hearts and we try hard to guard our thoughts and focus on what is good. Here's the good.... while we don't know exactly why he had the seizures we can check off many scary things that didn't cause them. As my friend pointed out to me, seizures can be a way that tumors present themselves. There has never been a reason for our minds to go there and worry about all the "what ifs" that would go along with a tumor. There are no underlying reasons why and that is wonderful. In those first moments of the first seizure, the thing that scared me and worried me the most was "what if he stays this way?"..... unresponsive and not my crazy, wild little boy. Terrifying! So, while the seizures are scary, the fact that he is his normal crazy self and there are medications that can prevent the seizures is huge in comparison to what could have been. "Unexplained" also doesn't scare me as much because I've seen God blow that out of the water. You can't do every infertility treatment in the book and have all of them fail, get pregnant with no doctors present and go on to have two kiddos in less than 2 years and be afraid of unexplained.

Storms of Life

As I reflect on the last couple of weeks, I've been thinking of how this experience compared with other things that have happened in our lives. My Dad passed away when I was 16. That was a destructive hurricane. It changed so much about our every day lives. God was faithful then although I was angry that He took my Dad. It made my college years less than I wish they would have been. I didn't drink or party but it wasn't a time of growth. After we had been married a few years, we decided to try to have a baby. Should be easy, right? They made birth control pills to keep that from happening. That's easy, surely getting pregnant would be too. Nope, another destructive hurricane. I had three goals in life coming out of high school/college.... 1) Get married 2) Teach school and 3) be a stay at home Mom. It seemed like the first two were relatively easy but that 3rd one taught me that I didn't have control. I couldn't make it happen any quicker with anything I did. I had to trust that God's plan was ultimately for my good even though it absolutely broke my heart for Him to withhold that for 4 years. I made a choice, though, to go to Him with my emotions and frustrations instead of running away like I did after my Daddy died. I wouldn't trade those 4 years for anything.

I've heard many times that if you aren't in the middle of a trial that one is coming. We have been in a period of blessing, answered prayers & joy. Just the normal day to day stresses of being a family of 5. I'd say that this recent "storm" is kind of like a summer thunderstorm. It came on suddenly, there were tornado warnings but no watches; it was scary in the moment but the outlook is a sunny afternoon. Now, Ken doesn't like saying that rain is a bad thing (thinking in particular about the song "Jesus, Bring the Rain"). In a more agrarian culture, rain is a good and necessary thing. Crops don't grow without it. It's been my experience that spiritual growth tends to be the most vibrant when we're in the midst of a storm.

When I hear someone else say that they have peace during a storm, sometimes I think that means that they don't struggle with any fear. I don't think that's the case. Just read Psalms... in one half of the chapter David is crying out to God about his enemies and at the end he praises God for keeping him safe. Since we have been the ones with Lincoln during and after these seizures, we've seen how he bounces back. We've talked to the doctors and heard the good news directly from them. In general, I'm not really worried but I am a little on edge. I'm still a little antsy if Lincoln does weird things or makes weird noises. I had a hard time falling asleep on Tuesday night because I was afraid he'd have another seizure. Little noises that wouldn't usually startle me at night wake me up for good. I am confident that will get better as time passes and we get back to "normal".

Lincoln's Neurologist Appointment

I'm really happy with the neurologist and her office. Everyone was incredibly nice. First we had the EEG. I wasn't sure he was going to cooperate. He was a little agitated until Ken got him to talk about the horses in our front yard. He perked up and did everything he was asked to do. The funniest thing was the point where he was supposed to go to sleep. He bounced around like crazy for a good while and then flopped onto his belly and fell asleep. We went out into the waiting room and had almost an hour to wait for the doctor. It wasn't that she was late but that there was an hour between the two appointments. At one point in time, Ken took him outside because he was walking around on the chairs in the waiting room. Again, such a tired little boy! Ken had him run in the hallway outside the office for a little bit. Boys!!! Ironically the exam room was filled with things from IKEA. There were tables & chairs, toys & coloring books. He was pretty good but by this time he truly was exhausted. I really liked the doctor. She gave us lots of information and was really reassuring. His EEG came back normal except for one part of the brain working a little slowly. She thought that was a result of the two seizures being so recent. We're supposed to bring him in for an MRI soon just to make sure there aren't any problems that weren't seen with the CT scan. So, all in all, she said that she isn't seeing any reason that he is having these seizures. This is the best case scenario and hopefully the MRI won't show anything. She recommended medication (Keppra) to control the seizures. He'll take it for the next 2 years. The studies show that taking it less than 2 years makes it more likely that they'll have another seizure. Anything more than 2 years doesn't have any benefits. We also have Diastat to give him if he has a seizure longer than 5 minutes or he has more than 2 seizures in 3 hours. Technically, he has been diagnosed with epilepsy because he has had several seizures but it's highly likely that he won't continue to have them. There's a chance that his meds may need to be adjusted but there's a wide range in the safe doseage. If he does have another seizure, we'll just need to call the neurologist's office to talk about changine the doseage. The seizures are likely something he'll grow out of which is a big relief. I'm about delirious but wanted to get this typed up tonight. We have been so blessed to have so many friends praying for us and Lincoln. I try hard not to be a worrier. Infertility busted up any thought that I have control over anything. In so many ways, our children were placed into God's hands before they were even conceived. We trust that God's plans are good and that Lincoln is fearfully & wonderfully made. We have felt His peace through this entire process. I know that prayer made a huge difference. We can't even begin to say thank you enough!

The craziest 24 hours in my life!

Yesterday afternoon Lincoln had his second seizure. It was almost identical to his seizure a week and a half ago. It wasn't as terrifying but it was still stressful. He had been playing in his room after waking up from nap and all of a sudden I heard the scream. I knew immediately it was a seizure and ran to his room. He had slumped over onto his train table and I put him on his side in his bed. As the seizure finished, I had Coralee get the phone so I could call Ken. He headed home immediately and called the Blackwoods. I was trying to call Shannon at the same time she was calling me. They headed over to take care of the girls. I was rushing around checking on Lincoln (poor little boy in the postictal stage was tired and resting in bed) and trying to pack a bag for the hospital. When we were discharged from the ER, the nurse had said to come back if he had another seizure and plan on staying the night if he did. After Ken got home, we got Lincoln into the car and headed to the ER. We are blessed with such wonderful friends; what a relief to know the girls would be taken care of so well! Last time, we arrived at the ER in style. There was no waiting with the general public. Last night was a totally different experience. It didn't take long to see the "Quick Look" nurse who took his vitals and wrote down what had happened. After that we went to another less crowded waiting room. As time went on, more and more people came in. It was nuts! I'm spoiled by the well/sick rooms at the pediatricians' office and the fact that usually we're the only ones in the waiting room and we don't even stay there long. There were kids with face masks because they were coughing. One little baby puked what seemed like her entire bottle. I Lysoled my coat & Lincoln's just because we were in that room. I've never seen so many sick kids. After 3 hours we finally got to go back to a room. More waiting for the nurse to get vitals again and then the ER doctor came into the room. In between, Lincoln was literally bouncing off the walls. I think he was exhausted and trying to stay awake. The doctor said that was good that we were seeing the neurologist the next day and he talked to the neurologist on call about what to do next. They said that as long as his seizures weren't longer than 5 minutes that it was fine for us to just go to the appointment. Kind of felt like a waste of 5 hours of my life but the ER doctor and the neurologist both agreed it was worthy of the trip. We stopped by Whataburger for dinner and then headed home around 10:30. It was probably midnight by the time I got to sleep which was the second night in a row where I was up that late. My plan had been to sleep in as long as possible and hopefully get a little school work done with Coralee before we left for his appointment. Instead, I woke up to Lincoln doing the scream at 6 AM. I had been sleeping on the couch because I had a hard time getting to sleep between the stress and Ken's sweet sleeping noises. I'm a little jealous that he can just turn things off and go to sleep. I just can't. So, I went running into his room (Ken was taking his shower). Everything was the same. We had been given the nurse line number for the ER for just in case he had another seizure that night. I stayed in Lincoln's room while Ken made the call. Since I was the one who saw the seizure I talked to the nurse. She had me try to get him to wake up and respond to me. She had me call the neurologist's office to talk to the doctor on call. We don't believe in coincidence or luck; God is sovereign and in control. The doctor on call was Dr. Elton, who we were seeing in the afternoon. She said there wasn't anything she could do since he wasn't on any medication that could be adjusted and to wait for the appointment. Things felt like they were on fast forward from that moment on. Ken stayed home until I got my shower and I had him call my Mom to let her know he had another seizure. I talked to her for a while and then my sister. The house was a mess when we left Monday evening. We try to pick up every night but we're lax on the weekends and CC started back on Monday so I spent a lot of my time getting things ready for class. When I got home, I just left things where they landed. Shannon's a good enough friend that I wasn't embarrassed entirely by the clutter but it still bugged me. Plus, while I couldn't control Lincoln's seizures, I could control the house. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth when I told Lincoln he had to take a bath before the EEG. Lauramae smashed her pinky in the dresser in our room and was crying like her finger had been ripped off. I lost it a little and IM'd Ken to come home. We got beds made....because we do that EVERY day ;-) and laundry started before we left. We dropped the girls off with Teresa and headed to the doctor with a quick trip to Quiznos for lunch. Mmmm, Sammies. This is getting long so I'll put the diagnosis stuff in another post.

Lincoln's Big Adventure

Wednesday we had Riley spend the night. Everything went well. Coralee loved playing with Riley for an extended play date and the other kids had fun playing with her, too. Thursday morning they all played in Lauramae's room with the kitchen. I barely saw them all morning. Teresa came to get Riley around 10 and we talked about going to IKEA. Got everyone dressed and loaded up to go. Lincoln pitched a royal fit because he didn't get to ride with Teresa but eventually he decided to get in the van and get buckled. Then I realized I needed to get gas.

Eventually we made it to IKEA, wound through the store and got to the cafe. Woohoo for kids eat free. We payed $6 for all 4 of us to eat. Everything was going well then Lincoln had a seizure. His eyes got big, he screamed a muffled scream and started twitching. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. All that lasted maybe 30 seconds - a minute but he wouldn't make eye contact with me and his eyes were rolling back in his head. Teresa asked me if she should call 911. I kept looking at him trying to see if he'd snap out of it but he didn't. She called and I kept trying to keep him awake. I'd never seen anything like that before and it completely freaked me out that he wouldn't look at me. One lady stopped and helped me try to keep him awake. Eventually the 911 operator said that as long as he was breathing fine, it was okay for him to go to sleep. Then the same lady helped corral Lauramae who somehow ended up walking around instead of sitting in her seat. I don't remember much about Coralee but I do remember telling her brother would be okay. She told me later that she was worried about her brother and her tummy hurt. She also prayed that wouldn't happen to her or Lauramae. The firefighters arrived very quickly.... it didn't even seem like a long time to me in the moment. They asked me about what happened & checked his vitals. By the time they did all of that, the ambulance was there. They got him wheeled out to the ambulance and tried to get him hooked up to more stuff. He was pretty difficult. He spent the majority of the ride drifting in and out of sleep. The EMS guy said that he'd feel like he'd run an marathon after the seizure. I felt like I got more information from him than everyone at the hospital put together. In the mean time, Teresa had called Ken. Well, she called David who called Ken. We couldn't get that information in the craziness. Reminds me I need to teach Coralee our contact numbers ASAP. I also left my phone at home to add to the craziness. Ken beat us to the hospital and was waiting in the room. Again, they tried to hook Lincoln up to everything and he was uncooperative. That earned him getting his temperature taken rectally. As he said, he didn't like them "digging in his body". He really hated the oxygen sensor they had on his big toe. Pretty much as long as the nurses were out of the room, he was fine. Ken sat in the bed with him and we watched really bad cartoons on TV. The doctor came in and basically said "sometimes this happens". He didn't have a fever so it didn't look like a febrile seizure. She ordered a CAT scan for him and we spent more time waiting (the whole ordeal was 3-4 hours so not bad for the ER). It was funny, as soon as the lady came to do the CAT scan, he perked up. She was a pretty, tall blond and I wonder if that had anything to do with his sudden cooperation. He happily rode in the wheel chair and did everything he was asked to do. They had a projector that put tiny stars all over the ceiling and then he had another one sitting on his chest while they did the scan to keep him still & looking at the stars in the donut. We got back to our room and waited to hear from the doctor. Within a short period of time, the nurse came back in (suddenly Lincoln liked her better, too), gave us our discharge instructions, a popsicle for Lincoln & we were on our way. I couldn't make appointments with the pediatrician or the neurologist because their offices were closed for New Years. We went to get the girls from Teresa's and then back to IKEA to get the van. In the mean time, Ken had talked to a friend from our Sunday School class to let him know everything was fine. They were meeting his wife at Mighty Fine for dinner so we joined them. Lincoln ran around on the playground like nothing had every happened (wires attached because he refused to let the nurse or us take them off). He was a little less difficult at bed time than usual. So far he's seemed perfectly okay. I'm a little less freaked out about the potential of it happening again because I know what to expect now. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing the neurologist even if they just say, "sometimes this happens". All this being said, it is amazing how God orchestrated all the details. First of all, I wasn't by myself. We go and do things all the time just the 4 of us. I said something about that to Ken and he said, "you would have been the chase vehicle behind the ambulance". I'm truly thankful that I got to take that ride with my boy. I'm thankful for Teresa being there. She has to be one of the most calm people I know and that definitely helped. Knowing the girls were taken care of was a big relief to me. Secondly, we weren't at home. I can't remember how far away the nearest fire station is to us but it isn't close. I think we were in the ambulance within 5-10 minutes of him having the seizure. My timing might be messed up but it was very quick. The other thing was we're usually back home this time of year. We spent the week before Christmas with family instead. The closest children's hospital is in Houston. I don't know what they would have done with/for us there in Beaumont or Lake Charles. For that third reason, we decided to stay home instead of making the marathon drive to Lake Charles today for my family's Christmas get together. I'm bummed to miss it but I didn't want the extra stress of a lack of sleep on my sweet boy.

Baby girl is getting taller!

I do plan to blog more about Christmas.... I promise! Today I brought Lauramae to the doctor for her second flu shot. While we were there, I asked the nurse to check her height. She was moving up the charts last time and we don't have to see the endocrinologist next week but I was still curious. Drum roll please.... she grew 7/8" in the past 2 months! She's 10%!!!!! I promise I haven't been worried about her. This is just "normal" for my kids but I'm still going to celebrate her being as "normal" as her siblings. It's sad when the nurse knows about the doctors trying to figure out what on earth is up with their growth charts. They've all grown a good bit (weight first then height) between 1 & 2 and little miss is no exception! I also have to say that I figured she had gotten taller because she's climbing more things now.... including her high chair.

The stockings were hung.....

We've had a whirlwind week of visiting family. We spent Monday at Chrissy & Jeff's. Tuesday we headed to Lake Charles to celebrate our anniversary. It's always fun to be at my happy place.... my Aunt Laura's. We got to visit, the kids had a blast painting scrap wood (and themselves). Mom & Bubba brought the kids back with them while we stayed in a hotel for the night. More visiting Aunt Laura on Wednesday to see Joseph & Emily. Picked up the kids, went to Dee & Na Na's. Thursday more time with Dee & Na Na and then we dropped the kids off at Mom's again. Had dinner with a friend from high school and saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. Christmas at Mom's this AM and now we're home. It's always good to be home. The presents/luggage are semi-organized. The stockings are done. Things are assembled and now it's time to sleep! I'll probably be the first one up tomorrow morning and will be anxiously awaiting the little ones waking up. They're beat from late nights and no naps so they may sleep in. We'll see.

Lauramae

She is just the sweetest thing. She's laid back and easy going but she'll let you know if she's offended. She's a talker like Coralee was. We're constantly saying, "Did she say what I think she said?" Her new favorite word is "Mine!" She's a picky eater but not in the typical kid way. She doesn't like bread.... at all. Occasionally she'll steal part of my sandwich but for the most part she waves it away. Now, she'll eat Grandma's yeast rolls or similar ones but no bread. We've started getting her soup - broccoli or tomato at sandwich places and she loves it. Her absolute favorite food is beans & rice. She's infamous for a refried bean moustache. We don't order her a kids meal at a Mexican restaurant, just a side of rice & beans. She'll eat all of hers and a good bit of ours. She's a short little thing but thankfully has started growing again. We were set to go to a pediatric endocrinologist to check out growth hormone issues because her height on the chart was heading so far south. By her 18 month well check she had grown a good bit and was back on the chart. Her weight is much higher on the charts so she looks like a little chub. Her head is so big (95%) that she has a hard time righting herself when she stumbles & falls. Poor baby has scratches & bruises on her head from falling over. She loves playing outside with the big kids. Well, she loves doing anything and everything they do. Recently, she's started asking to go to the potty from time to time. She doesn't do anything in the potty but she likes to wipe and flush the toilet. Momma's not ready for 2 on the train but it's pretty cute when she makes her requests.

Lincoln

This picture seems to sum up Lincoln at this age. We've been on the potty train for almost a year and most days he still has an accident. I'm about convinced that he'll be 25 and still poop in his pants. He is super duper stubborn about going to bed (especially at night) and it seems like he cries about everything. Can you tell what kind of day we had yesterday? It was a doozy! All that being said, he really is a sweet boy. I have to giggle because he can be so sweet to Lauramae one moment and the next he's running over her. He's surrounded by pink but he's 100% boy and then some. He's made such big strides in talking this year; it's a hoot to hear what he's thinking. Here recently our world is all "why" and "what is that?". He loves trains and cars and is SO thrilled with his train table from the Mitchells. For some reason, the sweet boy doesn't like to wear his boots on the right feet. The good thing is that he puts them on all by himself but they're rarely on correctly. He says he likes them that way. Funny, he also said that about poop in his pants (I yike it!). Thankfully that's changed in the past month or so. He's a good eater although he doesn't eat nearly as much as his sister. He'd rather get up and play. It's funny because he tells me, "Mommy, You're a good cooker" all the time. He tells Ken that, too, when he makes mac & cheese or chicken nuggets. Not so discriminating in his tastes. Little man is SO skinny although he's still 50-75% in height & weight so he can't be that small. I'm just not used to a bony back like his! He loves to do homeschool with us although that means he likes to scribble or put stickers all over his books from the dollar spot at Target. We'll start working more on ABC's & 123's this spring. Momma needed to get her bearings this fall. If he'd just be quiet, we were good!

Coralee

It seems like a good time to say a little bit about how & what the kids are doing. Coralee is in her 4th year of dance. Her recital in June was adorable. Their song was "Get Me to the Church on Time" and it was everyone's favorite. The girls were dressed as brides and it just couldn't have been any cuter. This is her first year without Mrs. Trish which is sad but she is enjoying Mrs. Jamie and learning new things. She's learned how to ride her bike without training wheels here in the last couple of months. It's funny how one day she just picked it up and started driving up and down the driveway. She's doing well in school. Math is her favorite subject. We've finally found a system that seems to work for reading. She amazes me with the words she'll read. Somehow the book we were using (which was super simple) just got on her last nerve and she refused to read out of it. She'd read books to me but not that reading book. I was still convinced that she needed to learn the phonics rules so we've changed to an online version of Explode the Code. She's loving Classical Conversations and has even attempted to teach Lincoln some memory work. It's funny to hear them talking about the 8 parts of speech as we drive down the road. Poor boy barely has counting by ones down but she wants to teach him skip counting by 2's, 3's, etc. She loves to draw and is anxious to get started on cursive in January. This year has been the end of her love of princesses.... except for her Christmas tree ornaments. I didn't know the princess stage was so short! She wanted to be a cat for Halloween although she was also Tinkerbell (to match sister). We bought a Sleeping Beauty costume for next year so hopefully princesses will be back in favor by then. She loves playing with her brother & sister. I don't know who enjoys playing trains more.... her or Lincoln. She wants to put on shows for us from time to time.... including a nice little presentation about her friend Riley at Thanksgiving. It was followed by a dance. She is really enjoying AWANA Sparks and the differences from Cubbies. We had our first hair cutting experience this year. Poor baby girl was trying to be helpful. Ken had told her she couldn't take her bath until she had the rubber bands out of her hair. Well, she got the scissors out and attempted to cut them out by herself. She cut a tiny slice out of her hair which thankfully is covered up. Can't believe we made it 6 years without that happening!

Merry Christmas from the Cottons

Here's the Christmas letter this year! I have the paper to print letters but just couldn't think of anything creative and wonderful to write. We're going simple and it's just an update on our family this go round.

The biggest change this year has been selling our house and moving. I've blogged plenty about that. Let's just say it's been an adventure. A year ago we started looking with the thought that we'd move in a year or so. In January, we looked at a house in Cedar Park that we thought would be perfect.... well except for all the remodeling we'd have to do and repairs that needed to be made. Our offer was rejected which was a huge blessing. We're loving life in the country. The kids can run and play outside which really is a change from subdivision life. Their Christmas present from Grandma & Grandpa was a playscape for the back yard. Before that, their favorite spot in the yard was a pile of rocks in the dry creek bed.

Speaking of the dry creek bed, we got an enormous amount of rain one day/night in September from Tropical Storm Hermine. Right as we were going to bed, Ken noticed that water was leaking into the house from the chimney and into the living room from outside. One bad thing about our new house is that it has some drainage issues. We knew that we needed to get some dirt away from the slab but never expected to have flooding like that. The rain was coming down so fast that the french drain in the front couldn't keep up. Some of the rocks for the landscaping kept the water from draining away from the house. Ken moved rocks & landscaping timbers and there was immediate relief. That kept the living room from getting more water. Still, we had a lot of water coming down the driveway and funneling into the front yard. Ken worked hard to make a dam. I assisted by holding the flashlight and moving some bricks to keep the dam in place. We were blessed that no more water came into the house and there was no damage. It was an exciting night, though. And, we saw that that creek bed was there for a reason and that water would run through it.

Going back a little bit, my sister & Jeff got married in April. I made my first non crib size quilt as a shower gift for them. It was a beautiful wedding. The girls wore matching dresses although Coralee was the only official flower girl. Lauramae wasn't walking at the time. The cutest thing from that was we had told Coralee to sprinkle flower petals on the sides of the aisle, not in the center. So, she got up to the front and turned around and threw petals on the other side. An Amelia Bedelia moment. Lincoln did surprisingly well and was adorable in his tux. I sang during the lighting of the unity candle. It seemed like that was THE moment when Lauramae & Lincoln were at their limit. I almost burst out laughing at them crawling all over Ken in the front row. Our evening began & ended with Coralee getting sick. Thankfully she missed her dress when we got there and everything came out easily (even red punch) from her after wedding issues. Lincoln had fun beating up on my Great Uncle Joe. I was a little mortified but he seemed to enjoy the rough housing.

Our niece & nephew came to visit with Grandma & Grandpa in July. The kids had fun as usual although Lincoln couldn't understand why he was left out from time to time. Poor little guy, he's used to all of Coralee's friends loving him as much as they love his sister. We took the bigger kids to a Round Rock Express game but honestly they were just as happy to stay at the house and play. Later in the month Keegan & Gyorgyi came to visit, too. It was a short visit but it was very nice to see them.

September was a busy month. There was that whole flood thing but that was all of two days' worth of rain. Ken's parents came up to stay with Oscar while we went to San Antonio for the kids' birthday weekend. Saturday we went to Sea World & Sunday NI had rented out Six Flags. There's no better way to do Six Flags. The kids had fun. Coralee is tall enough to ride the majority of the rides but she's still just as happy to ride the kiddie rides. While we were gone, Grandpa decided to mow along the driveway and on the outside of the fence. He got to talk to some of our neighbors we hadn't met. One offered to have their miniature horses come and graze in our front yard. I called later that week and by Sunday afternoon we had an electric fence installed and 3 miniature horses.... Rose, Buddy & Jacob (watch out, he nibbles). They're adorable and fun to have around. A few weeks ago, they got out of the electric fence and ran around like a bunch of silly boys (what their owner warned us they'd do). Ken got them back in the pen with my help and a couple of apples.

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year although it was a smaller group than usual. Our friends from church, the Davises, joined us. Their little girl Brooklynn is Lauramae's bff which means they like to give each other hugs and knock each other off their feet in the process. It's SO cute! Ken & Grandpa spent most of Thanksgiving day putting the playscape together. We did our normal Crazy Christmas Kickoff that weekend.

December has been busy with handbell performances and many other fun things like the Georgetown Christmas Stroll, Main Street Bethlehem, Breakfast with Santa at the fire station. We took a mini vacation earlier this week to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. The kids had a blast and when they have fun, we have fun. Lauramae had thrown up once before we left, Lincoln followed after he rode one of the slides at GWL and then Coralee had problems on the way back from getting Oscar from the Pearce's. Thankfully it's been a one time tummy trouble and Ken & have been spared. We'll leave on Monday to go back home for the week. Our anniversary is on Tuesday (14 years) so we'll be leaving the kids with Mom & Bubba and spending the night in a hotel. We're excited about being able to see everyone on Christmas Eve but we'll head home that afternoon to be here for Christmas day.

Blogging from my phone

Seems like we only take pictures with our phones now. I'm choosing not to ask how to add those pics to the computer. I'll just ask tech support instead. Maybe I'll blog more now that I can do it from the phone. Worst comes to worse, at least my typing should improve. Now if I can only figure out how to add a picture here.

Homeschooling

The good, the bad & the ugly.....

Every job has its good and bad days and homeschooling is no different. We had a rough morning today. There were some moments that I wanted to march her little hiney through the back fence, across the construction and register her for school. It was bad. I called Ken to tell him about how bad it had been. In the midst of her fit, Lincoln pooped in his underwear. It was a little more a Momma could handle at the moment. As I vented to him I had an "Aha" moment. My conclusion was that I can't avoid dealing with discipline. If she was in school, our fights would be about something else but they'd still be there. Imagine that I'd actually ask her to do something she didn't want to do!

The good.....
And it's SO good! It is so neat to be her teacher and see the light bulb come on. I'm sure I had those moments in the classroom but I don't remember them clearly. I just remember feeling rushed to go to the next subject. To see her progress and know you had something to do with it is incredible! It's amazing to see all that she's learned in the first 11 weeks of CC (one more to go in the semester).

The bad and ugly.....
Well, I already described that. It's pretty much the same every time things blowu up. She'd rather be playing with her siblings. Most of the time Lincoln will sit at the table with us. Generally we try to do school when Lauramae is taking her morning nap but she will even sit at the table and color/eat crayons with us.

I've also had some difficulty adjusting to our new schedule. I'm accustomed to being able to go run errands and basically do whatever I want to do. Our schedule is kind of crazy - Mondays are CC, Tuesdays are at home but we host small group here every other week so we're trying to do school as well as get laundry done, and clean the house. Wednesdays are craziest.... school in the AM, handbells at noon & Coralee has dance at 4:00. By Thursday, I'm ready to hang out in the jammies and sit on the couch eating bon bons.

The New to Us House

So, we've been in our new house about 4.5 months. I'd like to say how much I enjoy the peace & quiet but it isn't quiet. They're building a subdivision behind the house and the construction noise is awful right now. I keep telling people if the equipment just went forward instead of backward (beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.....) I'd be okay. Tumbling rocks into a dump truck isn't so bad. I know they'll be done sooner rather than later but I'm really ready for them to be done. This week they've started work at 5:45 which I must say gets on my last nerve. I'm surprised they haven't started yet this morning.

I love our new house.... the kitchen is absolutely gorgeous and nicer than we would have ever been able to do things. In my dream world, I'd have gas instead of electric and double ovens instead of a microwave & oven. But, I really can't complain. We'll live with all of that until something breaks. The floors are beautiful,too. Again, there are details that we would have never paid for. Oh wait, we'd probably think we needed to do it ourselves anyway.

We've done small cosmetic things in the house.... took down wallpaper/painted in the bathroom, replaced the light fixture over the table, painted our bedroom, & painted Coralee's room (which used to be Lauramae's room - yes, we've switched rooms in 4.5 months). The last two weeks, I've been working to get some decorating stuff done. 6 trips to Hobby Lobby (well make it 7 because there was a bonus trip for something else) in a week to get the perfect curtains for our bedroom at 40% off. I LOVE Hobby Lobby. It's not painful to go there that many times in a week. In fact, I may go today to get more fabric for Lauramae's curtains.

The living room was perfect when we got here. We've left Lincoln's room the original yellow and Lauramae's room the brown faux finish. Our next huge thing to do is our bathroom. There's only a shower and it's really small. We could do a bigger reno and take in part of my closet but that's bigger than I want to tackle. Plus, it doesn't go along with our long term plans for the room. So, there's some water damage/mold on the sheetrock in front of the shower. The plan is to replace the tile (floor to ceiling) and get a bigger door so it doesn't feel as much like a cave. I've watched enough Renovation Realities on DIY to say that the idea of this freaks me out! Still, we're too cheap to have someone else do it. In the end, it will be beautiful and much better than it is today. Ken wants to replace the cabinets in there, too. Only trouble with that is that we'll need to keep the same footprint. If we don't, we'll be replacing floor tile, too. The bathroom is super small so that wouldn't be too big of a deal but it looks really nice and we don't necessarily want to change it. Our thought had been to raise the bottom cabinets and use the granite that is already there but Ken talked to someone at work that says the granite breaks easily if you try to do that. Maybe that's something for the pros. We'd like to replace the tub/tile in the kids bathroom, too, but grownups get first dibs on the pretty stuff.

Long term, we'd like to build a guest house/garage behind the house and take in the garage as our bedroom/bathroom. Needless to say, it's going to be a while for that. A girl can dream, though!

I'm back!

Well, maybe! ;-) I've really enjoyed Facebook but in all reality, there are some things I think about that just can't fit in however many characters are in a status update! I was really surprised by how much I had on here. Makes me a little sad to see how much baby girl has grown in the last 5 months! Now off to make the blog pretty again; looks like my background is gone!

SOLD!!!!!

This weekend we got 2 offers on our house. We went with the first one since they were first….. it only seemed fair to us. Sunday we counter offered and they accepted. It all worked well for us – asking price, closing date June 29 (we’ll close on the other house June 30 – just in time for the tax credit deadline) and they want our fridge. Umm, well, you can have that for sure. We’ve worn off the water & ice buttons and it’s showing other areas of wear. Bummer, I have to get a new fridge.

To say that I don’t wait well would be an understatement. I hate waiting. I’ve noticed that when things don’t go my way, I tend to throw a fit just like I would have when I was 2. Life doesn’t fit my expectations and I throw myself on the floor, flail my arms and scream and cry. Thankfully I’ve learned a little self control as an adult but emotionally it’s what happens. We had to wait to get pregnant which was really hard for me. That was my biggest goal in life - to be a Mom. Yet God withheld that for 4 years. Over the past almost 2 months, I’ve told myself that this whole house buying/selling thing is small potatoes compared to that. I know that when I have my freak out toddler fits, that it’s okay to go to God with those raw emotions. It’s not like he’s surprised by them. He’s ultimately the only one that can calm me.

I love, love, love watching HGTV. Even before we got the grand idea to move, I loved to watch House Hunters, Designed to Sell, etc. I think it’s because I’m nosey or maybe it’s because we moved around so much during my childhood. I just enjoy seeing other people’s houses. I’ve watched those shows and thought, “Wow, why’d they think they could sell their house looking like that?” The shows make it appear that a little paint, elbow grease and some cash will make any home sell. In part, that’s true but I really think that it’s just another example of if you do xyz, you’ll be successful. The very idea puts you in charge and completely ignores God’s role and His plan. One verse that has seemed to come up over and over in this process has been Acts 17:26, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” I loved that verse when we were going through infertility because it reminded me that our wait wasn’t just about us. It was also about our children and what God had planned for them. Imagine that, it’s not just about me.

We had a realtors' tour come through the house a couple of weeks ago to give feedback. They suggested a lower price to get more search hits and 4 of the 10 suggested that we paint the half bath a more neutral color. In spite of the fact that they all rated the house as good or excellent, the comments made me feel even more insecure. I started thinking about all the things we could do to update the house. As I was painting the bathroom, I realized how meaningless all of this was (Ecclesiastes 1). There was no way I could do enough. The only thing that would work is to have the right person come to the house.

The thing that always hits me when we're in the middle of something difficult is how I don't know how or when it will end. I feel like I lack faith because I literally freak out. In my head, I think, I KNOW that this will end but I just hate it when things don't go according to my time frame. I'd like to say that I'll be a more patient person because of this experience but all it shows me is that I'll continue to struggle with it and God will continue to show me how faithful He is.

Okay, now that I've written a book, I can start packing boxes.... we aren't going to be using that china for a while. :-)