Blah, blah. blog

I'm kicking myself as I start to write because my memory card is in my computer not in my camera. You see, Eric is trying to do head stands right now. Hysterical. This is life in the suburbs baby!

It's funny because I feel like so much has happened since I last wrote. But, I don't know what to write about. I, personally, seem to spend most of my free-thinking time (this is the time when I'm not engaged in anything else. Sadly it usually occurs in the car, or at the Y, or when I'm rocking a child, or laying with a child) trying to figure out what HUGE thing God wants me to do next. I'm kind of in this place where I'm missing working, traveling/living overseas, and wondering if the 2 kids/ 2 dogs suburban life is what God wants for me. I mean I know the 2 kids is what God wants. But, what does He want me to be doing? I don't know. I may be doing it right now. But, something in me wants a little more. Hmmm....

As for the updates for the family, here ya go...

• Parker now screams, "Faster! We go faster!" every time we get on the interstate. He's not content until we pass about 5 cars. Nice.
• Parker is afraid of his poop. Terrified. I have no idea what to do. I will pay someone to potty train my child. Seriously.
• Abigail will be one year old in 2 weeks!
• Abigail is not crawling or walking. But, she does this silly butt scoot thing.
• Abigail cut 5 teeth during the last two weeks.
• Parker is solely motivated by TV. TV is a reward. TV is taken away when he gets in trouble. Time outs don't work. Nothing works, but TV.
• Eric can, in fact, do a headstand. For, um, 3 seconds.
• Eric's Wii fit age is now 35.
• Eric is going to KILL me when he reads this.
• The yard has been taken care of for the first time in a year. Yup, a year. Thanks Brenda and Darrell! It took 5 guys 7 hours to fix the yard.
• I now weigh less than I have in, count it, 3 1/2 years! Go stay-at-home-SUV-driving-want-to-be-cute-tennis-mom me!
• Parker can see with his new glasses. He has some pretty large bifocals, but his prescription should get less and less as he grows. He still has some white blood cell build up on his right lens. We'll go back in 2 months to have it evaluated again.
• Eric's work moved to Atlantic Station. It's a great location.

For some pics...

Abigail is obsessed with the dogs. I couldn't get a good picture of her looking at the camera because the dogs were in the room. But, here are a couple for fun...

Here's the truck load of yard trash that was taken away from our house. I'll post a picture of the yard when the rain is gone. Oh yeah, raise the roof for the rain! Lake this summer anyone?

I told Parker he could watch some TV if he smiled for the camera. Bribes. Hmm.

Update in Pictures

We were able to branch out of the house late Friday. Abigail came home that day too. The whooping cough was nasty. Parker still has a little cough, but it's not nearly as bad. I spent DAYS sanitizing EVERYTHING that he touched. Now, I need a maid to come and do my regular housework because I'm exhausted!

Parker pretty much refuses to eat veggies or anything somewhat healthy. I baked these blueberry lemon muffins from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Get this... there's 1/3 of a squash in each muffin, yogurt, and flax seed. He loved it!

I've also decided, because Parker keeps getting in trouble at school, that he's watching too much TV. In my quest to entertain him we've been very busy this week with painting, stickers, play do, puzzles, EVERYTHING. Got any ideas? This is P showing Abigail how to use some of the craft supplies.

Abigail is trying to move around. She's close to crawling, and will now stand for a few seconds with my help. She will not be walking on her birthday. Her favorite thing, other than grandma, is to sit at the table and participate in whatever project Parker is working on.

Parker doesn't like getting his picture taken right now. This is the best I could get. But, he has his new glasses prescription. These are loaner frames while we wait for his to come in. I HATE that he has to wear bifocals, but he can see. He noticed all the tiny rocks in the asphalt, the leaves on the trees, and keeps asking me to tell him what everything is. I'm really glad he can see. I can tell that his world is coming alive again.

Quarentine

Parker is currently on his 5th hour of TV today. Well, we've had little breaks. But, the good news is that the coughing is less, he ate a grilled cheese and kept it down, and he's back to standing right in front of the TV. Antibiotics are amazing. The bad news is that he still smells like puke from yesterday, and nap time is approaching- which seems to be difficult these days.

I haven't posted any pics lately. So, here are some of the past week or so...

Parker yesterday...

Parker today...

Abigail is almost 1, and she now has 6 teeth!

Fun in last week's snow...

Pray for Little P again please

I'm in a little daze right now. Parker was diagnosed with the croup on Saturday. That's not a huge deal. He gets it a few times a year. He seemed to be getting better until last night. He woke up with a different cough around 1am and didn't stop coughing. Literally, didn't stop. This morning around 10am he had a 103.6 fever. So, I took him back to the doctor.

The doctor immediately told me that he needed to run more tests on him, and that he was going to send us to the hospital because he suspected pneumonia. We got to the hospital around noon. The people at the hospital greeted us with a mask for Parker to wear. (Of course, I wore one too so that he would feel okay about it.) We were moved to a different waiting area where we waited for....3 hours! Luckily during hour #2 Parker passed out on my and slept until we were shown a room.

Things were a little strange once we got to a room. I was told that neither of us could leave the room. Then the doctor came in to evaluate Parker and I looked on his shirt at it said, "FEMA: Federal Emergency Medical Assistant." They started asking me all these questions about vaccines, where we've been lately, etc.

Anyways, LOOONG story short. After many hours in the hospital we are home. They are not exactly sure what Parker has, but they think that it is pertussis: whooping cough. It's highly contagious and he's pretty sick. The good news is that we caught it early. Antibiotics should clear it in a few days. The bad news is that he's really sick, and it's very dangerous for babies, like Abigail. So, pray for Parker to heal quickly. Pray for Abigail to stay healthy, and for my mom as she takes Abigail tomorrow for a couple days to keep her out of the germs in our house.

I'm refusing to believe that the way things have been at our house the last month are "normal". So, please pray for normalcy to return to our house. Thanks!

Parker's Prayer

Last night I was rocking Parker, and I asked him if he wanted to pray. This was his prayer...


"Dear Jesus,

Thank you for Monsters, The Wonder Pets, outer space, and hermit crabs.

Amen"