I have so many things going on but I just read through my whole blog roll and now I feel like I have nothing of substance to say. People post things that lift me up, things that make me laugh, things that make me think, and things that give me great ideas. I love the fact that a quick log on can do that for me. Just with a few clicks I can find exactly what I need to lift my whole day up and refresh me.
Thank you friends.
I try to be really mindful of how many things I schedule us for. I try to keep activities to only three days a week but this month that has proven to be impossible. We have stuff going on just about every day. Not just the kiddo's activities either some of the running has been for me and some has been for the man but it's just been constant running. This week I have...
Monday: Ice skating followed by another Ice Skating
Tuesday: Dance and Music with Miss Ann
Wednesday: Ice skating and Parent Meeting for the Ice Show
Thursday: Library
Friday: Co-Op Classes
Saturday: WHOA NOTHING. I totally forgot about Saturday.
Sunday: Church and Family day.
Good Grief! Plus all that ice skating and the church takes about an hour to just get there. I decided in my very unbrilliant way to keep some of our activities in our old neighborhood because a) we can afford them there and b) everything was already so established it was lovely. Right now it just doesn't seem like such a good plan.
So what has happened since my last post.
My brother was baptised. It was hysterical. Mostly that event is supposed to be a lovely service and very touching....*snort*. My brother is 6'3 and has all the coordination of a pack of drunken hyenas. So at our church there is like a big jacuzzi thing that you stand in and our baptized. It's very nice and should have been no big deal. My brother....*snort*...get in the tub and he speaks with Pastor Randy and he does his confirmation of faith and after he is baptised we all clap and shout. Then as he is walking up the steps to get out he slips, falls backwards, and goes under. As he does this he sends a wall of water over Pastor Randy standing there in his waders and a wall of water over the side of the glass on to the carpet. Well I know he had to be embarrassed but even so I burst out into laughter complete with snorting, the man sits down and covers his face, my mother is standing there open mouth and my daughter in her loudest five-year-old voice says, " WHY DID UNCLE AARON DO IT AGAIN?" This made my laughter even worse and at this point even the Pastor kind of turned around and looked at the back wall shoulders shaking. AJ gets up probably completely embarrassed but he got the loudest roar of cheers I have ever heard. It was so excellent! Priceless!
I'm completely proud of my brother...he can add drama to anything...even Baptism.
Today was gorgeous, beautiful, lovely, stimulating, extravagant, elegant, and mesmerizing.
All because it was 62 degrees outside.
People didn't shiver and freeze just walking to the car in the drive way and this family made the most out of it.
I had a really hard time getting up to our Co-Op class today mostly because I didn't want to be inside. The thought of spending time inside was just horrid. I mean we've basically been inside since November and this winter has been really really cold and windy. We had quiet a bit of snow and it was only about freezing ONE STINKING DAY in January. However we did go to Co-Op...mostly because I paid for it... and we had a great time. I had great conversation with the other mom's and that is just a life saver sometimes. Then Jewell and I went and had Subway, because I had a coupon, and we ate outside. The the Co-Op had set up a bowling day which I wasn't all that excited about but Jewell was and we went. She ended up bumper bowling with four other kids around her age and I met some knew people and it was just really great fun. I was tickled. What a great day!
Then we went shopping because Granny's birthday is tomorrow and I found a teapot wind chime that she will love ON SALE! I love the whole on sale part. We went to Target because we had to, then I decided to splurge on Cold Stone and we both ate that outside.
We came back and rested a few minutes before going outside and grilling dinner. I had to clear out the garage but I finally managed to get the grill out and we made turkey burger and I DIDN'T HAVE TO COOK ON THE STOVE. I truly feel like I've exhausted all possibility of cooking on the stove. There is nothing left to make that I haven't made a hundred times. After we ate then we went for a bike ride. Well I chased the bike and she rode but we both got a little exercise and that was wonderful too.
I wish it was going to stay this way. Tomorrow its supposed to be 40 and rainy.
WOW! Typically February is my busiest month all year. We have more birthdays and parties and events between February 5th and March 1st that we do at any other time of the year. However this year March is shaping up to be crazy. Just this week I've taken us to ice skating, dancing, grocery shopping, to the hospital, to the doctor's office, and in about 30 minutes I will have to leave for skating again. I know it's only temporary but geeze. We are starting practices for Jewell's skating show and that is taking up a lot of extra time. It doesn't help that we still skate where we used to live so it's about 40 minutes away in light traffic.
Ah well, not much use in complaining. Plus most of this craziness was my idea.
In other news we met a homeschooler who lives basically just around the block from us. She only has one child like we do and the girls seem like they will be a lot alike. I hope they like to play together so that we can know someone locally. It would be nice to not have a half hour drive to play with other kids.
My awesome church, Twin Oak Christian Church, started supporting a ministry called Rapha House last fall. I had never heard of this but I learned that it was a safe house for girls who had been rescued from human trafficking. The idea sounds vaguely awful at first until you look on the website and read some information about it. The last few weeks we have had guest ministers as our Pastor was off in Cambodia meeting his new granddaughter and visiting his son and daughter-in-law who are Missionaries in another part of Cambodia. He went to see the house and take some donations we had gathered for the girls there. The experience was so harsh and moving for him he is going to do some speaking on it during the services. He wanted to talk about it on this past Sunday but he got to emotional and told us all he was going to have to distance himself a little before he could talk about it. How powerful is that? A man who leads a group of sinner towards glory and has for years was brought to tears just trying to talk about the experience. The part that was hardest for me to hear is that there is a girl living there who is six years old.
That is Jewell's age.
So the pain I was experiencing the other day was so much more than back pain. By the end of the night I was sweating and shaking and in even more pain. I high-tailed it to the doctor just in time so they could tell me that I have a rather serious kidney infection and then dope me up on some really good drugs. Thank goodness I don't have a kidney stone because those are supposed to be pretty painful. I guess I can thank small mercies for that.
I'm feeling better now which is good. Although better is a rather relative term. I don't feel like curling up in a ball of self-pity anymore and I concider that a huge improvement.
Antibiotics make me stupid. I can't think of all the things that I originally wanted to post. Plus I yet again made my child cry and now she is sitting on her bed thinking about it. Sometimes I wish she wasn't such a sensitive girl but I know I would really never want her any other way.
So the doctor's visit wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was pretty sure they were just going to tell him that you are going blind and there is nothing we can do about it. It turned out that they are going to try a Corneia reshaping contact and if that dosn't work he is a canidate for Corneia Transplant surgery. Neither of those things sound like a lot of fun to me, but at least they offer some hope which is a bit more than I thought we were going to be getting.
I can't write anymore, I think I pulled a muscle in my back.
PAIN.
Well there is a title that doesn’t sound like what I mean.
Today I spent the day running. I got up had breakfast, showered, started school work, and then the Man called and wanted to go out to lunch. He is really stressed about an eye doctor appointment tomorrow where they are going to try to figure out what the spot is in his eye and why his eye muscles are deteriorating. I'm really worried about it too, but I'm trying really hard not to show it.
So we met for lunch at New Peking which has some of the most delicious Chinese food ever. I just love that place. We talked about nothing really and laughed and told stories. Then we had a half hour to kill before figure skating so we went to his parent’s house and hung out a bit. His dad is retired and his sisters are only part time and everyone was there and they were all great.
Then we went to skating and watched Jewell do just wonderfully for her age. Then the Man started not feeling so well so he dropped Jewell of at his parents where she is spending the night and he came home and went too bed...at 7 p.m.
The man never gets sick. He is typically the picture of health which can be rather annoying when you are sick because he doesn't get why you are sick and huddled in the bed under every blanket in the house. So when he called me from work last week and told me to make him a doctor appointment I knew it was bad. He's always had troubles with his eyes since he was a teen, but he actually got a headache so bad that Sunday the he was sick to his stomach. That hasn't happened in the seven years I've known him. The doctor's tested him for hours and then said they were going to take some pictures of his eyes right on the lens because they could see a spot. They wanted him to come back in a week so they can do the fish bowl test (it has a real name that I can't remember), an MRI, and maybe a CAT scan.
In the midst of all of this we had the greatest day on Sunday. We did all kinds of family things and we just hung out and laughed. The Man and Jewell shot a movie in my living room about a Ninja Space Kitty who wanted to take the Bible and Strawberry Shortcake to her planet. The cat was even really patient (for a cat) and let them make her a tin foil space helmet. She left it on for about 15 seconds. I was impressed.
In my past families experience that are experiencing a great deal of stress are snappish and crazy. Saturday was just perfect. Sunday was nice too except the Man wasn't feeling well so he spent a lot of time in bed. Today he actually called in sick to work. He won't be going in Tuesday either. I just hope everything turns out alright.
On a completely different note....I really love this post. Nap Time by BECK.
