3 little Miracles

3 little Miracles

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Getting to Know You

*to play..just copy the questions..answer them..then go to MannLand5 and link up*
1. what inspires you?
The Heavenly Father, praise and worship music, my family and friends, my children, magazines and books, and other bloggers.

2. what was the last thing you bought yourself?
Sadly it has been so long I don't remember the last time I bought something for just me.  Does getting a new Droid cellphone count? (Hubby and I both got one to upgrade our old cell phones)

3. would you rather watch a movie in a theater or from the comfort of your own home?
I prefer to see a movie I really want to see (Like Water for Elephants because I read the book and loved it) in the theater.  I especially love to see a new animated movie with my kids in the theater because they are so still and focused on it ;-)

Don't get me wrong, I love family movie night at the house, but getting away from the house and just sitting still focused on the movie without the phone ringing, or the kids getting distracted with a toy, etc. is a nice change of pace.

4. household chore you don't mind doing?
Folding Laundry, I am just not good at putting it away right away.

5. coffee or tea?
Tea, I love the smell of coffee but can't stand the taste.  Plus when I drink tea, it takes me back to the time our family was stationed in England for a year and a half when I was 11.

6. what could you eat every day and not get sick of??
Chinese pork fried rice without onion

7. what's the last book you read?
Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

8. do you think you look you "look" your age?
Lets put it this way, I FEEL like I look my age but other then a little bit of gray in my hair (which I cover) I think I actually look more like I am in my mid 30's.  I am also told all the time I look much younger.  Thank goodness for a good complexion.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Yellow Haze

I love spring, but this is the one part I don't care for . . . . . the YELLOW HAZE of eastern North Carolina.

Every spring the pollen literally fills the air and covers everything in sight.
It turns cars into drawing boards and from their original color to YELLOW.
It fills puddles and ponds with yellow swirls of pollen.
And turns a sun shinny day into a day that looks like the fog in San Diego.

The Yellow Haze of Pollen in eastern North Carolina is temporarily washed with rain, but always seems to come back worse then days before when the rain has passed.  Hopefully the rain we have had over the weekend and will have most of this week will wash the pollen literally down the drains and myself and other allergy sufferers will not have to have sinus infections and headaches during pollen season.

However, the blessing of the YELLOW HAZE is that God is ready to wave His hand over the trees and flowers and make them POP with life and the bright color of FRESH GREEN will follow the HAZE OF YELLOW.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Bumbo today Gone tomorrow

I bought Rachel's a Bumbo seat on Friday at Target . . . . .
Tuesday Rachel's PT instructor said she hated them and that it would hinder Rachel's muscle development for sitting on her own . . . . .

and Wednesday I returned it :-(

Although I have heard many praises about the use of Bumbo seats and how much little ones enjoy sitting in them, I am trying to stick to the advice of our PT instructor Kathy and stick to the exercises and movements to teach Rachel how to sit on her own.  I will miss the Bumbo, because in the few days that we had it, I loved seeing her sitting in it and she enjoyed seeing things from a different position.  Oh well . . . . . by Bumbo :-(





Monday, March 21, 2011

Rachel: 5 months old

Rachel today your are 5 months old
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You Weigh: 11 lbs 10 oz.
Length:  24" + (that was your length at your last appt. in February)
You Wear: size 0-3 Month clothes and size 1 diapers (although we are getting ready to move you up to size 2's with the next Amazon shipment of your diapers)
Feeding:  6 oz bottles, Similac for Fussiness and Gas x 5 plus 2 ounces of your night time bottle.  You always fall asleep 2 ounces into your  8:30PM bottle and we can't get you to wake up and finish it. 
Sleeping:  You are sleeping 9+ hours each night and you take 3-4 30-45 minute naps throughout the day.
You are a very easy going little girl, very quick to "chatter" and give us a big old grin.  You usually get up around 5:30AM, for the most part you want your bottom changed and your happy to wait until 6:15ish for your first bottle of the day.  (Thank you for that, it gives Mommy time to get your brother ready for school.)  After your first morning bottle you usually chill out in your swing and eventually fall asleep for your first 30-45 minute nap of the day.  When you wake up (around 9:30), I get you dressed for the day and if its close to bottle time, we will sit down and watch the Food Network. 
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After you finish your 9:30AM bottle, I move you back to your crib and put your activity arch in there so you can play with your toys and work on your reaching skills.  Every 15 minutes or so I will check on you and if you awake and happy, I will roll you over to your belly for some tummy time with your activity mirror, after that you usually take your second small nap for the morning.  After you and I work on your  physical therapy some, I go about my house work and get your brothers lunch ready while you continue to play or take another small nap, then between 12:30-2 o'clock I give you your third bottle of the day.

After your mid day bottle you usually fall asleep for a much longer nap and don't wake up again for another bottle until between 3:00-4:30.  I love this feeding time the most because I am done with most of my daily housework and Jon is down for his nap, so you and I can just lay on our bed and chat, play, and eventually you let me know your ready for the bottle.  When Dad gets home he takes you to his big red Lazy Boy and the two of you kick back to talk about your day while I get dinner going (sometimes you both fall asleep).  The rest of the evening you spend in your Dad's lap or your swing beside him after dinner until your final bottle of the day around 8 o'clock and then you go to bed for the night.
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Today in honor of your 5th month and your physical therapy officially starting tomorrow, I bought you a Bumbo seat to start working on your sitting skills.  Hopefully Kathy your PT instructor will be happy with your progress when she sees you tomorrow.  Your a  beautiful little little girl and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.  I can't wait to see what progress you make over the next month.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Getting to Know You



1. if you won the title of miss america, what would your platform be?
Like I would be in a beauty contest, HA!!!!!  However, if magic happened and I was young enough and pretty enough to be in one, I would have a platform for Disability Awarness.  Growing up I remember going with my GA group from church to help for a few hours at homes for children with disabilities and riding on the school bus with two girls with mental disabilities.  I remember the cruel behavior and ignorance of others.  As a mother of a beautiful little girl with DS, I want to make sure she has all the opportunties in the world to be who she wants to be and who God would have her to be, without the thumb of cruelty from others pushing her down.  So helping others to have a greater understanding of disabilties and compassion to help is important to me.


4. what's your favorite room in your house?
Rachel's bedroom, followed closely by my own bedroom.

5. nook, kindle, or book?
BOOK!!! I love the feel of the pages and the smell of a new book.  However, I will say that for a paper back book that I know I will trade in at the used book shop, I don't mind the idea of a kindle for those.  BUT if it's a I know I am going to keep for my own libary I want the REAL thing and in a hardback.
6. would you rather wear the same outfit for a week or not brush your teeth for a week?
Outfit

2. outdoorsy or indoorsy?
I am more of an indoorsy girl just because I love the AC in our humid NC climate, however, I do love to camp in late spring and early fall when the weather is more tolerable for being out without horrible heat and bugs.

3. pajama's out in public..classy or tres tacky?
Tre Tacky.  I will go to the bus stop with my son in my PJ's only because once I get him off to school I HOPE to get a small nap on the sofa while Jon watches morning cartoons and Rachel takes her morning nap in her swing.

7. what's your favorite blog at the moment?
Enjoying the Small Things by Kelle Hampton followed very closely by Kelly's Korner

8. lately i've been daydreaming about.........?
A new house

*to play..just copy the questions..answer them..then go to MannLand5 and link up*

Sick family

I can not believe it has been almost a full month since my last blog post.  I am having a hard time sitting down to the computer these days, I still have not fully found my "mom rhythm" since Rachel came into our lives.  On top of that our entire household got slammed with the flu.  First my dear MoG got sick, then it hit me, quickly followed by all three kids and my parents.
I will be honest to say that when my husband first stayed home I was a little irritated because it seemed more like a "man cold" to me.  I find it amazing that when the mom gets sick with a cold or anything else, she still has to make beds, do dishes, cook, do laundry, and pick up the house but when the man gets sick all he can do is connect is butt cheeks to the Lazy Boy.  But in this particular case, when the flu slammed into me 48 hours after my husband, I realized what he was feeling.  Guess God showed me for thinking cranky thoughts about my husband, HA!

The flu has been very rough on our family, we all had the flu shots, but apparently this was a different strain of the flu.  The first 48 hours was high fevers, terrible chills, and body ache like you had been at the gym for 48 hours instead of in bed.  The first 48 hours also brought on a terrible chest cough that is STILL hanging on including ear blockage for me.  Then just when you thought the bad part was over the 3rd, 4th, and 5th day of the flu brought on horrible sinus congestion.  I honestly think Davey was the one who brought it to us, because other then a cough, he was fine.  He did have a bit of a fever on Monday, which is why we kept him home to go to the doctor with the other two kids.  At the doctor both boys tested positive for flu B, they didn't bother testing Rachel.  So the doctor told us that the boys should just take fever reducer and over the counter cough/congestion medicine, and Rachel he was putting on  prescribed flu meds because it was effecting her feedings (she was barely holding down 2 bottles) and they wanted to really kick the flu bug out of her. 

So Davey was back to school by Wednesday and Rachel was doing much better and back to her normal feeding schedule by then too.  But poor Jon . . . . . he got the worst of this whole deal.  Once again the congestion went straight to Jon's ears and instead of his fevers going down they got higher.   He woke up screaming in pain in the early hours of Thursday morning and went straight to the sofa, the boy is for sure the meanest patient I have ever seen.  I want so much to hold him and sooth him, but he doesn't want anyone touching him when he is in pain, he is like a little wounded bear.  If it had been Davey, he would have been at my bedside calling my name and he would have wanted me to hold him until he was settled.  I was able to get some pain reliever in Jon and within 30 minutes he had settled down and gone back to sleep on the sofa.  BUT ever four hours it was the same thing so at 8:45 I had him in the doctors office.  Sure enough, the pressure of the congestion and infection had once again busted his ear drum.  On top of that the doctor thinks that the tubes that he just had replaced back in January, are slipping out of position, problem is he can't really tell because of all the junk in his ear with the infection.  So I plan on following up with his ENT doctor to see how things look after we get past this.  For now we are on day three of nasty junk pouring out of Jon's ear, but at least the fevers have finally passed.

I really hope the ENT can slip the tubes back into position in his office, because I don't think I can put Jon through a third surgery in less then a year for ear tubes that obviously don't seem to be working.  I mean come on, this was supposed to be a solution to his ear infections, and yet we seem to be having just as many.  On top of that they removed his adenoid too during this last surgery and that doesn't seem to have helped either.  I guess I am just a mother bear myself, I just want my little man to stop suffering with these horrible ear infections, I really worry that they will cause long term issues for him.

So for now we are beginning to mend.  David is at church today with David Jr and Rachel while I am home with Jon.  Hopefully his ear will stop draining today and I can get him back to preschool tomorrow, he is really suffering with cabin fever.  We are just ready for some super healing to happen in this household.  I need this cough to leave me so I can return to choir, we are getting ready for our Easter musical at church and I have missed most of the rehearsals at this point.  BUT, it won't do much good to return when all I can do right now is cough every other note, HA.

I hope all of your households are doing well.  Hopefully this week I can catch up and update you on some of the other things that have been happening for the past month.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Show Us Your Life - Parents & Siblings

I am so proud to share with you just a small glimpse into my family, so often on my blog you read about my husband and children, but today at K'sK is all about the family we grew up in.  I think God blessed me beyond measure to be a part of this family and although at times we have had our differences, we still love deeply and defend each other with passion.

I actually have a pretty large family by today's standards, besides my parents Jim and Sibyl, I also have 3 siblings, Ted, April, and Jimmy (he hates when I call him that, he would prefer Jim, but he will always be Jimmy to me).  My parents seemed to have really planned out their family because they had boy, girl, boy, girl . . . . . February, December, February, December.  BUT, we all know it was God's genetic plan and design for our family . . . . not my parents, HA.  I am the youngest of the 4 and we are all two years apart.

My father James Everett Jr. was the middle child in a sibling group of five and he grew up in Greensboro, NC.  However, his desire to be a pilot took him to Spartan College of Aviation in Tulsa, OK where he met my mother while working a grill at a burger stand.  My mother grew up in Sand Springs, OK and I can tell you, you can take the girl out of Oklahoma, but you can never take the Oklahoma out of the girl, LOL.
After my parents married on July 1, 1961 (yes they will be celebrating 50 years this July) my father continued his career in the flight industry, eventually working for Seaboard World Airlines where he served as a flight engineer.  Seaboard World Airlines eventually became Flying Tigers in 1980 which later became Federal Express in 1988.  We always tell my father he should write about his years of flying, because he has so many amazing stories and hilarious experiences.  I think my favorite story involves my father and his red beard, you see when my father grows facial hair, it grows out red even though his hair is dark brown.  My father's job as a flight engineer is to check over the plane before it leaves the ground, he does a complete point check system and makes sure the plane is safe for takeoff.  While he was doing his ground assessment of the plane, a ground crew person approached dad and asked him if he could take on some mail, my father said "sure" and went about finishing his checklist.  Well, the crew was ready for take off and finishing their cockpit check list and during the process discovered the plane was too heavy for takeoff.  So a full check of the plane had to be done and it was discovered a 1 TON palette of mail that was not approved for the plane was on board, a ground crew person was asked "who approved this mail being placed on the plane" to which the man responded, "the man with the red beard".  My father slipped away quickly, found a bathroom and shaved off his beard . . . .  he was never identified and the palette was removed and the flight eventually left the ground.

I am very proud of my father, he worked very hard for many many years to take care of his family, and he was lucky, he was able to take care of his family doing something he loved.  I think one of the difficult things while we were growing up, is that my father was gone for long periods of time, and when he returned he wanted to step right back in to being the 'Head" of the family (as he should), BUT this meant that my mother told him the good and the bad that we did while he was gone.  In his mind he needed to re-punish us for the bad to assert his authority and teach us not to misbehave with mom while he was away.  As an adult and a Christian parent, I understand that dad wanted to establish himself as the head of the family, but as a mother I know that when my husband comes home I want to talk to him about my "work day" at home with the kids, just like I want to hear about his day.  I know my mother was just wanting to vent and decompress from weeks of being the only parent, she was not wanting dad to re-punish us, but she didn't want to question his way of re-establishing he role.

Most important what stands out for me looking back on my growing up years, is the teaching role my father played in leading me to a knowledge and love for Christ.  My parents truly made an effort to keep our family actively attending and involved in a church no matter where we lived, including the years we lived in England. Although my family moved around a lot in our younger years due to my father's career, we eventually moved to Southbury, Connecticut where my father felt God leading him to be a part of a new church being planted in our community.  When my father was sure of God's leading, he invited the "bible study" to meet at my our home, until such time as the church found a place to meet.  My father JOYFULLY served as a deacon of the church and my mother was a Sunday school teacher, I am proud that our family played such a big part of the early history of SBC.

My mother is the biggest and most important role model I have in my life.  I literally grew up wanting to be just like my mom.  I distinctly remember having ladies in the church I grew up in approach me and tell me how much my mother's example, teaching, and love meant to them.  My mother was a stay at home mom, and remained at home until I was in my teens, at which time my mother returned to school and graduated with honors.  My mother did not return to the workplace until I was in high school, she felt it was important to be home and have a daily influance, impact, and example on our young lives.  I can not think of a greater example of Christ's love, then my mother.
Jimmy, Ted, April, and myself

I LOVE my brothers and sister, although at times we can truly find something and nothing HA to argue about, even as adults, we know how to laugh and I know every time that my siblings will come to my defense.  Ted is the oldest of the four of us and he is a high school english teacher.  Ted has two amazing gifts that I have always respected in him, the first being his ability to find common ground with anyone and have amazing conversations with whoever he meets, he doesn't know a stranger (a quality I am sure was unsettling for my mother when he wa a child).  The second qualtiy or talent I love about Ted, is his musical ability.  I grew up listening to my brother play guitar, I could sit for hours and watch him play and sing Jon Denver songs.  Another thing I am extremely proud of my brother Ted and my sister-in-law Paula for, is their compassion that lead them to adopt two young sisters, my nieces Zoe and Brooke and now being foster parents. 

My sister April is an amazing woman, mother, and my best friend.  After my mother, April is my second best mentor and role model in my life.  My sister truly inspires me after raising her three beautiful daughters Cassandra, Hilary and Calli my sister returned to college and got her RN and estabilshed a career as a nurse with one of our local hospitals.  I know how difficult it had to have been for her to step out in faith and work as hard as she did to study and graduate with honors.  I love spending time with April when we get the chance to, just like when we were girls sharing a room, we could giggle for hours over the silliest of things.

MY BROTHER Jimmy, oh how I love him.  Jim (as he prefers to be called) is two years older than me and he and I spent the most time arguing as kids growing up.  As my mother loves to say "if he said black you said white",  I believe it.  I do have great respect for Jim he went after his dream of being a pilot like my father and he worked hard to accomplish it,  It took him a few years after high school to get himself settled into adult life and find his way back to studying to be a professional pilot, but he did and he is so much happier for it.  I will always cherish the time Jimmy and I had growing up, because we were closer in age we spent a lot of time together especially in our teen years in the church youth group and its that time spent together in church and growing closer to God through study and fellowship that I think will always bond us together.

My family means the most to me, without them or apart from them I feel like something is missing.  Although my husband will always come first in my life and I will follow him where ever God directs him to take us, I pray it will never be far away from my parents and siblings.  If you asked me one word that describes my family, I would say CHERISHED!