Not the TV show.  No cute George Clooney involved in this post.  Just cute lil’ Aidan and his determination to meet deductibles & break records.

It all started on Tuesday March 1st when Aidan decided to join the circus and do his first ever glass eating show.  4 hours later in the ER with 3 small children we learn that he was full of poo.  Literally the X-ray to look for glass in his digestive track indicated “retained stools”. 

And in case you didn’t get the full story he has a bad habit of chewing on things while watching TV.  Apparently a glass eye dropper that I didn’t recall we even had, was left out. He started chewing on it unaware it was glass & would break if he bit it hard enough. AHHH!  While I went looking for pieces & checking his mouth he ran in the kitchen & grabbed a piece of raisin toast took one bite when he started screaming & bleeding.  Oh yea.  Bleeding from the mouth.  This is the point in the story you need to know it was of course lunch time when this all went down. SO no Dr office was answering!! AHH!  Several calls to Dr's, Urgent Cares & even my Dr. back in Derby where it wasn’t lunch time we end up in the ER.  Fun. Fun.

Fast forward 3 weeks to the 23rd.  Matt returned my sister to the airport.  Up at 3:45 am mind you. I call him about 4:30pm when I find Aidan has shoved styrofoam up each nostril.  I {with all my medical training} successfully removed one wad of styrofoam using Qtips & tweezers.  Matt heads home as I am unable to remove the other trying Qtips, tweezers & baby booger sucking bulb thingy.  I jump in the shower cause I’ve been painting & cleaning all day and don’t really wanna  “fit in” with the urgent care/ER crowd.  While showering Aidan proceeds to run around playing thus snorting the wad further up his nose. AH!  Matt gets home & first tries the vacuum followed by the vacuum with his converted baby booger sucking bulb attachment stuck to the end of the vacuum tube.  No luck.  It is now, of course in true Aidan fashion, not normal Dr office hours so the mission to find an Urgent care that accepts our insurance & has the equipment to remove the styrofoam is on.  With no luck.  They all refer us on to the ER.  Matt takes Aidan cause I know I’m not strong enough to hold him down….physically or emotionally.

They get checked into the ER about 6pm.  I hear very little from Matt so about 9pm I text him “How are things?” Matt: “not good” an eternity passes so I send another “is he ok?” another decade goes by “?????”.  Nada. FINALLY at 10pm Matt calls and they are on their way home. Big guy came home puffy eyed and ready for his mama….so did Matt!! HA!! Matt was soo tired having been up so early that AM, working all day & then at the ER all evening! The next day Aidan acted as if nothing had ever happened.  We did put him on an antibiotic as the Dr worried all the digging & scraping could have caused chance for infection.

The hospital tried suction devices, hooks & tweezers several different times.  Spraying affrin between attempts to help reduce the swelling of the tissues that had set in even before Aidan left for the ER.  They waited 30-40 minutes between attempts to allow the nose to rest & Aidan to calm down.  His screaming got intense enough they had to move him to a room with doors rather than a curtained off “room”.  Matt said Aidan was incredible brave between attempts & even when the Dr was just looking, but the moment they tried to stick something up his nose he went crazy.  First screaming, then screaming so hard no sound came out.  By the final attempt he plead with them to stop.  “Why are you hurting me? I don’t want you to do that.  Please stop hurting me.  Just leave it there. I don’t like you Dr.” and so on… Matt said before it was over he and a nurse were tearing up!!  The final attempt & successful removal was thanks to a bent paper clip from the Dr. station desk.  Wow…wonder if we will be billed for the use of that medical instrument!?!?! :)  Much to our surprise it was a larger chunk than we thought.  The one I removed was about the size of a pea…this one Matt compared to 1/2 a green bean.

Hmm…bean…that’s kinda funny he mentioned  beans.  As when he was a lil tike he shoved a “who spilled the beans” bean up his nose.  His parents were unaware he had done it.  He had a certain stinky smell about him so they took him to the Dr where the Dr discovered & removed the infected bean.  A couple weeks later Matt did it again!! :) This time his parents removed it!!! :)

Let’s hope Aidan did a 2 for one!! :)

So there are 2 of the 3 ever trips to the ER I have experience with.  These two kinda pale in comparison to my 1st which was high BP following the delivery of Isaac. :)

Praying for an uneventful & Dr.less April!! :)

This family picture was taken a year ago this month.  Wow.  What a year it has been! There are so many things I’d tell the woman in this picture.  She was very unaware of what would unfold in the weeks following this photo.

She was in TX on her first family vacation as a family of 5.  A special trip out of state.  The furthest from home the kids had ever been.  Riverwalk, Sea World’s dolphins & whales, visiting family in Houston.

She was comfortable in her life.  Happily married, 3 healthy happy kids, a nice home with the ultimate new playground.  She ran a daycare full of great kids & wonderful parents.  A member of an awesome church that provided support, a plethora of friends &offered many, many blessings to her family.

She lead a life of routine & busy schedules.  Church on Sunday.  Helping with Sunday school or nursery.  Husband very busy in all areas of church.  Lunch after church each Sunday with the in-laws.  Usually some girl shopping while the boys watched sports or napped…or both! :)  Daycare during the days. Board Meetings, MOPS, bible studies & other volunteer opportunities filled the remainder of the week nights. Late night talks with dear friends.  Daily calls from sister & friends. Visits north to her parents every 6-8 weeks. The weeks were always full of coming & going.

She kinda speculated the very day the photo was taken that she might be expecting. A week & a half later that was confirmed.  CrAzY surprising news to receive driving 70 mph down the highway!! There was some worry about the idea of adding another child, but was excited none the less. 4 seemed perfect…a nice even number.  We already had a boy or girl “vowel” name picked out.

It was in no time really within 24 hours of the pregnancy news things started to unravel.  An all time low in her marriage…yep you heard me. Probably surprising news to some, but true.  Doubts in some of her friendships. 3 weeks later she’d lose the baby…on that VERY day the biggest change to come would be put in motion.  While waiting in the office for the Dr to put the seal of approval on the broken heart caused by the empty sonogram screen Matt said “I’ve got big news from work, but I’m not sure now is the time…blah, blah…a position in AZ”. No Matt…NOT the time. 

She was too busy processing the guilt.  She finally got IT.  The instant guilt one puts on herself when the joy of 2 lines end up with a motionless sonogram.  The what ifs.  The dreams that had already been dreamed- over like that.  The complete.total.realization that love at first sight is a myth  AS sometimes love occurs without sight…love can occur instantaneously with no more of a visual than 2 pink lines. With in minutes you dream boy or girl, Owen or Ellie, brown eyes or blue, sister or brother, what will he/she look like, act like or grow up to be?  You can almost picture a family photo with a family of 6. And so on.

It was when God took his baby back that He directed her path a direction that she never would have gone with the baby.  Arizona.  Every word in a thesaurus under the listing of “NEVER” would not adequately describe the odds of moving to Arizona at the time of the photo above.  But she felt the calling & went.  Pushing aside the WHYS that weighed her down. Why tease us with the baby?  Why take what was certain joy (in our mind- baby) & replace it with such uncertainty, doubt & fear in all areas? Why pull us away from family & dear friends we had grown close to. If she listened to the “whys” she’d never have the strength to proceed.

If there was a way to tell her THEN what I know now I’d tell her…

Blessings follow you in going where God leads.  It’s NOT easy.  NOT always comfortable.  NOT necessarily chirping birds, sunny skies & rainbows…ur…happy.  But he didn’t promise us easy, comfortable & happy.  He DID promise He’d never leave us.  He does sometimes allow burdens for us to realize how much more we need Him.  And you WILL need him in what lies ahead. So rest in that. He can use where you are to bring healing to relationship issues in ways you can’t imagine.  It won’t be overnight & will require more of you than you can sometimes dream possible to give.  He can use your isolation from friends & family to draw you closer to Him to work in your life & in your marriage to bring about change He wants for you.

The pain & hole that you feel from losing the baby will heal.  Even the urge to try for another will subside…for good, or at least until later.  On days of stress with an 18 mo old you’ll almost breath a {guilty} sigh of relief that you don’t have a 5 month old as well.  But then you’ll have days where your arms still ache for that lil’ boy or girl.

Rest & be still. Being pulled out of the craziness & business of your routine & schedule into being void of activity…just being.  This time for family & for kids will make you wonder not only HOW you did it all before, but WHY.  So cherish & use the time He’s given for clarity, reprioritizing & restructuring you ways toward His plan.

You will find another church family that will help you grow. Not as easy to connect & will take you out of your comfort zone to do so, but it can be done.  You might even grow to like hearing similar topics & stories shared in ways that are different than before.  Your eyes will be opened & gain spiritual maturity that if you had remained in the business of church you might have missed & remained in the rut of “doing” church rather than BEING the church.

The friends you didn’t think twice about missing while on your short TX trip will be friends you long to see.  Took for granted the friends that shared smiles, encouraging words & warm hugs on hard days. You’ll miss many for all the different ways they touched you. Caring hugs from some, calm gentle words of others.  Times of laughter, companionship & good food! :)  Although gone strong friendships will remain- achingly painful at times but, doable. Not having these friends so readily will force  you to rely on yourself & place your faith & strength where it truly belongs instead of on friends. 

Cherish each day as it comes.  Try even on the hardest of days to find joy in Him.  Days you will doubt.  Days you won’t wanna even get out of bed.  Days you think you could live inside everyday, not putting yourself out there to meet others to just bide time until you can move back. But then in your heart you know.  You’ve seen others dealt much larger struggles in life than what you’re currently in & having watched that you know all the “whys” will someday become clear…and in that you might even say “thank you God & sorry for my doubt in your plan, for I just didn’t know.”

There will be days where you receive wonderful news from KS & would die to be there to celebrate & days that you receive bad news or see loved ones hurting & you’d do ANYthing to be there. On those days pray…A lot.

But then there will be good days.  Days where you see the silver lining, can see the blessings more clearly.  You can see how growth & change is happening in your life because you were removed from the daily “rut” you were in & brought you your knees submitting to His will. And SOME days you think you might miss the 70 degree, sunny crystal blue skies & majestic mountains when back in KS someday.

There will be moments like now where the emotion is still so surfaced that you cry and not even sure if it’s sadness, happiness or shear confusion.

Cheers for April ‘11 to be far better & less eventful than April 2010! :)

We had more Midwest visitors seeking refuge from the winter.  Sadly the temps cooled while they were here making it a bit warmer in KS!! 

Marcia & her 2 kids arrived Friday the 18th and stayed until the next Wednesday.  We had a fun time shopping, painting, playing & eating!

Aidan introduced Dallen to the world of Transformers & Super Heroes.  In fact they played with their transformers in the doll house!! :)

 

Saturday we took the boys shopping while the girls stayed home to “help” Matt start the bunk bed building. Here they are “saying good-bye” as we pulled away. :) They kept busy all weekend with crafts, playing school & bossin’ the boys!!

Sunday was a lot of fun! We attended church & enjoyed lunch at Peter Piper Pizza or Peeper Piper Pizza according to Aidan. (imagine Chucky Cheese). 

Following lunch we took advantage of the nice weather at Westport in Glendale. It’s a small shopping center next to the Cardinals Stadium with fountains set to music, restaurants, movie theater & a splash pad for kids to play in.  Oh…and MARBLE SLAB!!! ;)

Chillin’ outside Margarita Ville.             A shot of all 4…well 3 & Dallen’s best side!!

Marble Slab!! YUM! They all got various kinds of ice cream with gummy bears.

Dallen with his rrrred tongue.  And the free entertainment they begged for…

You can see their hesitation in getting wet…..at first. :)

Before long the boys were all in…SOAKING wet!!

Marcia & I chillin’ as the kids had the onset of hypothermia.  Emma, whom has NEVER enjoyed being wet, sat out & watched the crazies!!

Monday we started work on the boys’ room.  We are graduating them out of crib & toddler bed soon so we put a fresh coat of Khaki & then started to plan the stripes.  Their bedding has 2 shades of blue, apple green, orange & brown.  (from Target) The stripes are now done…pics to follow soon.

Then there’s little Isaac.  Poor lil guy struggled with a fever prior to their arrival and then started coughing & snotting on Saturday.  Matt woke up sick to his stomach on Monday too.  I took Isaac to the Dr. Monday & got some cough meds.  He’s still snotting today but hopefully he’ll get better soon.

  

Always great of have company!!!  To bad the weather was cooler and over cast :(  Very seldom is it overcast here and it was 3 of the days they were here.  Marcia & I questioned how families with more than 5 kids do it.  It was constant motion & constant mess. :) The kids had a ball playing & were fighting like siblings by the time they left!! :)  Hard to believe it will be June before we see them again.  But it’s almost April already!! WOW!!

Welcome back to you my 2 readers & welcome back to myself from an unintentional blogging break.  This break was brought to you by “funk”. A funk I was in. Privately.  It’s not THAT kinda blog.  I was feeling recluse & not interested in even sharing ho-hum boring daily stuff on here.

A funk where bloggin, scrapping, snappin pictures & many other things I love simply didn’t bring me joy.  There was no joy so there was no desire.  Honestly my desire to do many things were nill. My house showed it, my laundry heap resembled it & my children would speak to my lack of patience.

A valuable lesson was learned b/c of this funk. A lesson this song Day After Day by Kristian Stanfill speaks of. I’ve listened to this often in the past weeks.  Here’s a snippet:

“Men will try to rule the world You made
But we know power is Yours alone to give and take
A day will come when every knee will bow
And every tongue confess that You are Lord
Both now and forever

Day after day our God is reigning
He's never shaken, my hope is in the Lord
Time after time our God is faithful
Trustworthy Savior, my hope is in the Lord

The fear of man and what they plan will fade
But we know You alone are God of every day
Like the flowers, man will rise and fall
But You are everlasting, never ending God eternal”

Your joy can not be found behind a camera lens, in front of a computer screen or with paper, scissors & pictures. You can not place your happiness, joy or allow your overall attitude to be determined by the actions of others.  Not a friend. Not a spouse. Not a single human. When there are struggles in your life there is only ONE that you should place your hope in. And He will fill you with peace.  He will provide hope when there’s none to be found. He is the answer to all things.

So, GOOD NEWS I’m on my outta the funk.  (or trying…depends on the day….rrrrr….hour) I found my happy place. Adjusted my attitude. And re-oriented my focus where it should have been all along. Upward.

I started my bloggie catch-up with a post below that is soooo “last year”. :) And more to come….

Waay past due is this post.  Like so “last year”.

This was the week after Christmas.  The week.O.Emma. Papa & Gma came from KS to help her celebrate turning 7.

Luckily Phoenix hosted a parade for her bday.  The Fiesta Bowl parade. :)

Meet Sheriff Joe & his entourage.

SomeONE plllllease drag me out of AZ if we remain here long enough for me to participate in an old lady pom-pom squad!!  Jealous, you might ask. YES.  Some of these ole gals were in better shape than I am!!!

My BIG {coooold} 7 year old.

Kids LOVE the balloons.

A tractor to remind of us “home”.

OU drum line.  Neat pic…but their band paled in comparison to the East coast band of the other team…whom I can’t remember their name :)

Oh…and the boys were there too…

Parade was followed by lunch at her most favoritest place!!

Followed by Papa & Daddy going to the Fiesta Bowl game. {no photo as grown men don’t seem to appreciate being subjects of photos}

Sadly Papa had to cut his visit short & daddy went back with Gma b/c Great Gma Zona passed away.  She’s at peace now. Reunited w/ Gpa George Aden after so, so many years.