Baby Katja, Adam and Alicia's little girl was scheduled for surgery today. I have told a few of you in the past about her and thought your continued prayers for her healing would be appreciated by Mommy and Daddy. I will pass along a report when I hear one.

On the way to recovery

I never made it to my appointment with the otolaryngogist Monday. Instead, I found myself at an Urgent Care clinic Saturday. I really could have waited on the ear popping and the sinus pressure, but that migraine was not to be endured another day!

Most times, I refer to myself as a wimp. I hate needles, and I whine more than I probably should about nicks and bruises. When it really comes down to it, though, I would like to think that I can handle pain when it matters. I have given birth to three children naturally. That should count for something, right?

But, for those of you who have dealt with migraines on a consistant basis, you have my awe and my pity. Pain is one of those things that is hard to describe to others. If your limb is cut off people know that must hurt. A lot. But something that has no visible markers is difficult. Is the person exaggerating? Are they just coping really well? Migraines are no joke.

My eyes felt bruised and throbbed and seared to shift from side to side. Blood throbbed into my head with movement out of bed, up the stairs, or standing from a chair. The throbbing increased in waves as though I had been swung around by the ankles with the pressure building in my head as each rotation was made. A few times it dropped me to the floor and once I threw up from the pain. That was Saturday morning at about 6:00 a.m. on an empty stomach when I realized I probably couldn't wait until Monday to get it taken care of.

I missed Grant's baseball game and drove myself to Urgent Care. The doctor sent me away with a prescription for pain medicine and a prescription for antibiotics. I was glad for the pain medicine, but also hesitant about it simply attacking the symptom and not the cause. The doctor wasn't convinced that the migraine was caused by the sinus infection. More than likely, it was triggered by stress. I knew I was under a bit of stress with all that has happened lately, but I didn't expect to see it manifest itself like that and I hope never to again.

One of the most inconvienent things was putting Lael on formula for a few days while I took the medication. Thank God she takes a bottle and doesn't mind formula, but nursing is certainly easier in the middle of the night! This morning I was able to go back to the normal routine with her, and it was a relief.

And can I just say what an amazing husband I have? We have had so much going on this past month and me being unable to function this weekend simply added to the weight on his shoulders. He handled it all really well and took care of the house better than I do! And did I mention he took all three kids to the baseball game alone?! I love you, Eric. You are incredible and I'm glad you're on my team.

On the way to recovery

I never made it to my appointment with the otolaryngogist Monday. Instead, I found myself at an Urgent Care clinic Saturday. I really could have waited on the ear popping and the sinus pressure, but that migraine was not to be endured another day!

Most times, I refer to myself as a wimp. I hate needles, and I whine more than I probably should about nicks and bruises. When it really comes down to it, though, I would like to think that I can handle pain when it matters. I have given birth to three children naturally. That should count for something, right?

But, for those of you who have dealt with migraines on a consistant basis, you have my awe and my pity. Pain is one of those things that is hard to describe to others. If your limb is cut off people know that must hurt. A lot. But something that has no visible markers is difficult. Is the person exaggerating? Are they just coping really well? Migraines are no joke.

My eyes felt bruised and throbbed and seared to shift from side to side. Blood throbbed into my head with movement out of bed, up the stairs, or standing from a chair. The throbbing increased in waves as though I had been swung around by the ankles with the pressure building in my head as each rotation was made. A few times it dropped me to the floor and once I threw up from the pain. That was Saturday morning at about 6:00 a.m. on an empty stomach when I realized I probably couldn't wait until Monday to get it taken care of.

I missed Grant's baseball game and drove myself to Urgent Care. The doctor sent me away with a prescription for pain medicine and a prescription for antibiotics. I was glad for the pain medicine, but also hesitant about it simply attacking the symptom and not the cause. The doctor wasn't convinced that the migraine was caused by the sinus infection. More than likely, it was triggered by stress. I knew I was under a bit of stress with all that has happened lately, but I didn't expect to see it manifest itself like that and I hope never to again.

One of the most inconvienent things was putting Lael on formula for a few days while I took the medication. Thank God she takes a bottle and doesn't mind formula, but nursing is certainly easier in the middle of the night! This morning I was able to go back to the normal routine with her, and it was a relief.

And can I just say what an amazing husband I have? We have had so much going on this past month and me being unable to function this weekend simply added to the weight on his shoulders. He handled it all really well and took care of the house better than I do! And did I mention he took all three kids to the baseball game alone?! I love you, Eric. You are incredible and I'm glad

Migrane.

I've never had a migrane before, but I think that is what I'm experiencing. I don't really know what is happening to my body: various forms of a crazy virus have taken over nearly a month now and now this awful head throbbing for two days. The pain is behind my eyes. It hurts to move them. The throbbing increases drastically when I change elevation (go up/down stairs), or have to move to quickly. Yesterday I put an icepack on my forehead for a time which was soothing. I have finally waved the white flag, though, and have a doctor's appointment scheduled for Monday.

Eric came home Tuesday and hoped right back into the swing of things to try and help me out: laundry, dishes, backrubs. Wednesday night, I was so pitifully sneezy and sick that he drew me a bath, hefted the TV into the bathroom, and hooked up the TiVo so I could watch the recorded episode of Gilmore Girls. Pure heaven. Lael wasn't feeling so great, either, so she joined me at the very end in the tub. It was one of the sweetest moments I've had with her. She hardly stirred. Her skin was slick and soft all at once. The lighting was low. Priceless mother-daughter experience. I can't even putit into words. neither one of us wanted to get out.

Sitting here typing isn't as relaxing as I thought it might be. I'll have to update more later.

P.S. I know I'm probably the only knitter, but if anyone has old needles or unused yarn (even partially used skeins), Hilsboro High is knitting items to sell for the benifit of Hurricane Katrina victims. My LYS (Local Yarn Store) is collecting for them and reports that nearly half the school knows how to knit and is part of the effort! Some days you even get a 10% discount for your donation. On the way home from picking Grant up today, I dropped off a full grocery sack of old needles and yarn. Emily told me at the shop today that they are so desperate for knitting needles that they are taking wooden chopsticks from restaurants and sharpening the ends with a pencil sharpener!

Banana Seeds

It has been a rather long day. I woke up at roughly 7:00 (sleeping late- Woo Hoo!) and panicked a tad over how much I had to do and how many people I had to get out the door in less than two hours. Breakfast for all! Clothes for all! Three cheers for teeth brushing for all! Present wrapped. Diaper bag stocked. Water bottles filled. We squeaked out about 5 minutes late, but made it to the ball field around 9:30 for Grant's warm-up and then baseball game at 10:00. He did so much better this game. Still had to use the tee to hit, but really ran (and dropped the bat!) and got on base nicely each time. I noticed he was taught the phrase "baseball ready!" and spent less time fiddling with the dirt and grass and more time watching the action. Lael was a mostly happy baby and sat in the stroller and clapped and drank occasionally from the water bottle straw. Dean was awesome! I think he really enjoys the ball park and is very good about playing independantly while remaining close. He collected rocks, ran circles around the bleachers, talked to the big kids playing with their GameBoy (nice outside activity, don't you think?), and cheered on the team. He appears to be a good encourager; we plan on encouraging this trait. The Game Ball was given to our very own neighbor and friend, Luke. Yay Luke! After the game, we left to grab lunch in a very Soccer Mom fashion and make our way to the birthday party for one of Grant's classmates. The party was held at Let It Shine which is a great facility. I took gymnastics for a period at Brengle Terrace as a kid and it brought back memories. Although, Let It Shine is a top notch place in comparison.

We came home and watched some TV to wind down (Batman meets Scooby Doo on DVD). We were all a bit exhausted, but it was too late for naps- 3:30. Played. Ate dinner. Baths. Prayers and Tucking In. I have cleaned up the dishes and done the lesson planning for the week ahead.

Grant is such a sponge right now and he is asking a ton of questions. I try to write down some of the queries and get back to him with more information. He stumped me last week with questions about how banana plants grow if bananas don't have seeds ("or are those black things in the middle seeds?"). So after I planned out the basics, I did a bit of research on bananas and came up with this site. The website became extremely interesting after I finished reading the banana piece and continued on to the next segment on Garcinia Family (Guttiferae): Mangosteen.

I admit that I don't know everything, and that there are zillions of plants I've never heard of. But I have never heard of a mangosteen. Suddenly, I felt a bit outraged that I had never heard of it because it is apparently "one of the most delicious fruits on earth". Aaaaccck! I have to have one! (there you have it- my very own Veruca moment) Being in the dark regarding this "queen of tropical fruits" (are they rubbing it in?!) is especially insulting considering my recent designation as Fruit and Veggie Expert.

Someone get me a mangosteen!

We received Lael's passport in the mail today. Not a big delay at all. Under "Authority:", her passport says "United States Department of State" since it was shipped out of the Katrina mess and handled elsewhere. The rest of the family received their official passports from the New Orleans Passport Agency.

Family of Four again

Eric is in Texas until Tuesday. We all took Grant to school today and then I dropped him at the airport on the way home.

I've been extremely busy lately and feeling slightly overwhelmed when it comes to accomplishing all that needs doing. Because of this, I am praying that everything runs smoothly and that the time moves along quickly.

A number of things are contributing to that "slightly overwhelmed" feeling. Mostly, I just need to get a rhythm and routine down for the new things that have come along. Each phase in life requires a bit of readjustment. Marriage. New Baby. New Job. Moving. They all demand a change in schedule or priorities. A few weeks of transistion time and we'll be set.

Tomorrow Grant has a baseball game and then a birthday party. I imagine the kids and I will be busy until 3:30. I haven't decided what the evening holds, but we have been invited to a scavenger hunt with LaDonna's Sunday school class. Sunday, I work in the nursery at church, so we will be there for both services. Rest of Sunday? Completely open. I'll take suggestions.

I mowed the lawn yesterday for Eric since he wasn't going to have time last night and today I finished the seaming and weaving in of ends on the secret knitting project. That said, I feel productive enough that it isn't bothering me too much that some dishes are in the sink and laundry needs to be folded. At least I can't complain of being bored while my husband is away.

And for those of you who have prayed for my Grandma, she had surgery Monday and seems to be recovering nicely. That is about all I know. With the time change and most English family members being stationed at the hospital we have had a bit of a communication break down. My dad and I have talked a lot though, if for no other reason than to comfort each other in not being able to be there.

Even if we wanted to, we couldn't fly out now. I got a postcard this week saying that Lael's passport was being processing in the New Orleans office and has been delayed due to Hurricane Katrina (all passports and forms have been since shipped out to another facility). I called the phone number they provided and they suggested I go in person to an office if there was immediate need for her passport. Same day offices? New York. Washington, D.C. Chicago. Los Angeles. Other than that, they have no estimate on when it might be complete. We'll just wait it out and feel thankful that a passport is all I have to worry about after the hurricane.

Frequent Driver Miles?

That would be nice, huh? If you got perks for driving so much. Free gas? Car upgrades? Discount on the car wash?

We knew it would be a sacrifice to do the academy with Grant rather than the local public school. But with the current gas prices, driving 100 miles extra on school days seems especially sacrificial. Maybe it's a test of our commitment? Nope. very much commited regardless. This morning, Eric took Grant to school and then drove to the office. It doesn't save us much mile-wise (15 less miles), but it is nice to be typing this with Dean, Lael, and me still in our pjs. I didn't have to rush all of us out the door. And I think that is what Eric was aiming for- making my morning a bit less hectic. It worked. Making buttermilk pancakes and Bible reading were accomplished without much clock-watching or distraction.

Correction: Lael is no longer in her pajamas, needing an impromtu bath after a lovely "blow out". I think she rarely receives a planned bath. Babies make so many messes.

So, I have lots of things that need to get done around here. Nothing exciting, but plenty that hasn't been tended to with the home schooling, tiling, baseball activities this week. I plan to clean the bathrooms, vacuum, work on a knitting project that is done but just needs seaming up, do something special with Dean, decide on dinner and do the prep work for whatever it may be, and catch up on a phone call or two. This might be a bit ambitious for the day since I have to pick Grant up from classes at 2:30. We'll see.

Walking with Daddy to the dugout. Go Number 10!

Future baseball player, Owen Kelso.

A shot of Grant in "baseball stance". Most of the time he was playing with the dirt, waving at his spectators, sitting down, or looking the other way.

Mommy and Lael in the bleachers.

Grant and friend Luke on the same team.

Dean at the ball field enjoying his concession stand Slurpee.

In the classroom! The bulletin in back says "Red Yellow Black White You are Precious in His sight". Near the globe are the ticket pockets for discipline. The clothesline on the right hand side of the picture has the first two (of seven) hanging pictures illustrating what God each day that He made the earth. Cubbies and supply closets are to the left. And elsewhere in the room are the apple tree, and a bookshelf with all the year's books, and a white board.

At school, and heading in the building!

Front porch, first day of school. Batman backpack.

Dean doing a breathing treatment for his wheezing. Sad, isn't it?

Eric cutting tile in Bob the Builder glasses.

Grouted master bath before grout "haze" was cleaned off. (yes, that is a toilet in our closet.)

Me laying tile in the guest bath.

Finished tile in guest bath minus two tiled removed with sledgehammer and chisel. Oops. At this posting, though, all is well and they have been re-cut and replaced.

Can't Do It Justice

...but I'll try.

The past few weeks have gone by without me posting much of value. Our family has been through some big things and I'll do my best to give a picture-heavy entry to play catch-up. In truth, I could probably write entire essays on a few of these experiences- but many of you would be bored with detailed descriptions of my emotions and thoughts, I'm pretty certain. Anyway, here come pictures and words. I'm not promising anything profound, anything in order, or anything complete.

Our friends Travis and Amy are now living back in Nashville after being in Birmingham for roughly 9 months. We're glad to have them back, but wonder slightly why we went to all the trouble of a Goodbye party. :-) Oh well. Eric was able to get him a job again at HMS, though not exactly the same position. It all went pretty quickly, and before we knew it (like, overnight), the women in the Button family were up here trying to get Amanda into school. They stayed with the Kelsos a bit, and with us a bit while waiting for Travis to join them and secure an apartment. I felt really bad for them since they stayed with us during the most unorganized time our house has seen to date.

We bit the bullet and decided to tile the bathrooms upstairs on Labor Day weekend. They are the only full bathrooms in the house, leaving just a powder room downstairs. Both toilets were removed and showers were out of commision at various points. So, at any given time we had 9-10 humans in this house sharing one toilet. One day, we only had the garden tub in the master bath accesible so we all took baths. I haven't taken a bath for cleanliness in years! I'm a shower girl (although I love baths for relaxation) and this was one of the things I wasn't looking forward to at all. But, Amy was sweetly positive and thankful about the bath. And it wasn't as bad as I thought, either. I think the thing I have issue with (although I clean my children in a bath all the time) is rinsing myself in the dirty soapy water. In a shower, you are continually rinsed in fresh water.

As far as the tiling job goes, I AM SO PROUD OF US! Eric and I are far from what you would call handymen. We haven't tackled too many home improvement projects. Many of them are frustrating because we lack the skills. For some reason, though, I really wanted to try this project and (for some reason) he agreed to do it with me. I envisioned us getting mad at each other and frustrated about things not working according to plan, and (worst case) us having to call someone out to fix our mistakes. Most of the project has gone off "without a hitch" (as they say). And we've only had two points of severe frustration that we have made it through. We're still married and I'm in love with him as much as I've always been. Friday night after work, Eric, me, and a co-worker Doyle got started at 7:00p.m. and installed the backerboard flooring on top of the old linoleum. We finished at about midnight. I had trouble sleeping because of the dust and climbed into bed with Dean. Eric woke me up about 1:30 a.m., saying that he vaccumed and dusted and changed all the linens in our room. This gave me that squishy twitter-paited feeling and I happily joined him for the 4 1/2 hours of sleep we'd get that night. Yuck. Saturday was tiling of the master bathroom. We marked out the pattern with chalk lines and pre-cut all the tiles and had them adhered to the backerboard with mortar by about 5:00pm. Doyle joined us for a few hours again that day, but never got to see the finished product. Day three was reapeating day two on the kid's bathroom. Much smaller and we knew what we were doing by then= mush faster. Monday was grouting and that felt so easy and was done rather quickly. I think the hardest (or maybe just longest) part was all of the measuring and cutting. So much cutting!- the small bathroom had only 5 full tiles...all the others had to be cut. And since then, we have sealed the grout, re-installed the toilets, sledged out two miscut tiles and replaced them, and painted the walls (okay, Eric single-handedly did the painting). Still to accomplish is replacing the quarter-round moulding, hanging a medicine cabinet we bought, and getting a professional out to tack the carpet back down at the transition points. I am so pleased with the tiles and the paint color. Such a difference from the builder grade vinyl flooring!


So, I'm trying the whole imbedding of photos thing again. And I'm just not happy with it. Things are going slowly, and it would appear that the next image has an error. So, the rest of this post will be written out, and I'll just use hello to post all the other pictures after I'm done writing. For a non-computer person like me, I had better just stick with what works!



Anyway, we survived the house guests and the tiling, ins pite of being sick through the whole process.

We seem to be slightly sick still. Grant and Dean were seen at the doctor's office (as I previously mentioned), but part of the cold is just not responsive to the the anitbiotics. Really, they were only meant for the lung infection portion of th cold, so all the other bits still remain.

But, Grant was able to go for his first day of kindergarten on Friday morning. Eric went in late to the office, so we were all able to walk him into class. The night before, I told Grant that we'd have to be quick in the morning and get out the door rather early. Everyone cooperated and we were out the door on time even with me having set the alarm for p.m. accidently and waking an hour late! In fact, we estimated for more rush hour traffic and arrived 30 minutes early. Better early than late. It was especially sweet how excited grant was the moment he woke up. He shot out of bed and kept saying "today is the first day of school!". On the way to school in the car, we also heard an extremely funny exchange between the boys.

Grant: I'm sorry I won't be with you today or eat lunch with you guys since I'll be at school.
Dean: It's okay.
Grant: I will miss you, Dean.
Dean: Oh.

Grant wasn't nervous at all and Eric and I quickly left after a few photos because we couldn't really figure out what other purpose we could serve. He was ready to learn, the other kids were arriving, the teacher was showing him where to sit and helping him tuck away his lunch box. He didn't need us there. We'd done our job and he was ready. I dropped Eric off downtown at the office and went home with Dean and Lael. The house was extremely quiet and we had a lovely day of book reading, lunch, and cake baking. Rarely do Dean and I get so much time together without interruption, I cherished it and look forward to more days like that. He took a short nap and woke up excited to go get Grant from school.

Saturday, Grant had his first baseball game at Rotary Park. Kris and Mary and Owen came to watch my son be completely clueless. I love him dearly, but I also can be honest- he has a lot of learning to do! At the very end of the game he was able to run to home base with a lot of coaching on the side regarding where to run and when to stop. This league is commited to taking the game seriously, though, so I'm sure it won't be long before he's hitting and catching with all the other kids. Two practices a week (2 hours long) and 1 hour, 45 minute games each weekend. Yikes. What have we signed up for?!

Sunday was football game watching and church and Life Group.

That covers at least some of the basics. Next I'll get some pictures up.

Where is my supersuit?

With all of the superhero pretending around here, I've often said that this house is very protected. But the proof emerged the other day while folding the laundry. Three out of five members of this house have a freshly washed "costume".

First Day of School...Friday (hopefully)

Today is the first day of kindergarten for Grant- and he is missing it! We've all been sick. Everyone I know has been sick in the last week or is currently sick. And a cold isn't going to stop my very excited boy from conquering his first day of school. But wheezing and a fever of 102 certainly will.

This pesky, persistent cold got worse yesterday for Dean and Grant. They were struggling to breathe and their temps shot up. So, I found myself at the pediatrician's office at 4 in the afternoon the day before the Big Day hoping that she'd tell us we could still go. Thankfully, they don't have pnemonia, but they have an infection that is on its way to that if we don't get their lungs to dry up a bit. Dean had pnemonia a few days before Lael was born last December, so I am really glad we didn't mess around with it.

And once Grant can be fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medicine, we have the go ahead to take him to school. It is expected that parents will make a fuss over the first day and take photographs and linger a bit at the door, but Friday will be the SECOND day of school and we'll be the goofy parents making a big deal of it all. Oh well.

I am very glad I took the camera to Meet the Teacher day last week. His teacher is "Miss Jan" and she is delightful. It is going to be a good year.

Lael is 9 months today! Here she is eating her first "finger food" (Gerber sweet potato puffs). 

Costco gas pumps in Brentwood. I was leaving church and it was close, and cheaper, so I thought I'd fill up. I didn't realize how much cheaper until I started pumping, but word was obviously out. Regular was $2.55 compared to $2.99 at the Marathon station across the street on Moores Lane (ghost town over there, btw). Normally, I don't bother with places like this for a two cent savings per gallon. But, really, this was worth a 5 minute wait. The part I thought was funny was the "bouncer" in the bright yellow vest. He was trying to keep it all quick and weed out those that didn't have plastic to pay with. While waiting, I also saw him tell a man with multiple gas containers to only fill his car because others were waiting (the old man had about three containers...did he think we wouldn't *ever* be able to buy gas again?). And once or twice, he hooked up the pump for a few people before they had a chance to get out of their car, like a full service pump. Hiring him was a good idea; it moved swiftly. I will never forget that when we moved here 7 years ago, gas was $0.89 a gallon for regular.

The lines were seven cars deep.