We have been anxious for Joshua's annual MRI this year. He's had a few things that have gotten us a little worried over the last couple of months and so we even pushed to get it moved up by a few weeks.
I can't imagine any other 8 year old handling the whole process better than he does. He got up this morning at 5:30 with me and was ready to go by 6:00 without complaining. We made it to the hospital by 6:45 and he loves catching up with the nurses and tech's that work in the MRI department. They have to start an IV for him and he has been known to be a "hard stick" at times, with not a lot of visible veins in hands to choose from. The nurse tried once, but didn't have luck getting a return, so he had to get stuck twice. He sat right there and watched, enjoying the conversations he is having with the workers - doesn't complain, fidget or make it a challenge for them at all. The nurse took him into the MRI room and he was a little apprehensive when he saw the big machine, but after talking to her for a while - he settled down, got some medicine and went right to sleep. One of these times we will try it when he's awake...he might enjoy watching some TV while lying there...but, not quite yet.
They got his MRI started about 20 minutes early, which was a nice surprise and he woke up in good spirits. He ate a few crackers, drank some juice and was ready to go home!
He was hungry afterwards and really wanted to get a donut, so we stopped at Wood Bakery on the way home to let him pick one out. We got home and got settled - only to then have him throw up, which meant he'd have to wait to have that donut. He did not like that idea at all - he was so hungry! I made him wait through 2 Phineas and Ferb shows (1 hour) before getting his "real" food. He sat down to eat his donut, got through 2 bites and then got sick again. So, no more donut and back to just water. I assume it's from the anesthesia wearing off, but we'll keep an eye on him. He said he didn't want to have lunch, so he is resting now and watching Shrek 3.
We are anxious to hear from the doctors about how the scan looked - hopefully we'll know soon.
Whew! What a busy first half of the day....
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sweet things my children say and do...
I am amazed sometimes at the things my kids say and do. I wanted to share a couple of their latest.
Last month, our church encouraged us to participate in a 21 day fast. This was part of an awakening movement for us to draw closer to God and see Him at work. Doug & I each chose to give up something and the kids were given a calendar that they could follow. Each day on the calendar had something that they would give up for that day (TV, sweets, computers, etc). About 3 days into the fast, Joshua told me he wasn't going to have chocolate milk for dinner that night. He usually gets chocolate milk, since he really needs those extra calories. I asked why and he said, "If you are not going to drink Diet Coke then I'm not going to drink chocolate milk". I told him it would still be for a few more weeks and he said, "That's okay, I don't need to drink chocolate milk". And that little guy didn't drink any chocolate milk during the rest of the 21 days. We hadn't even made a big deal of them giving up something - we just asked them to try and follow the calendar. They did great through the 3 weeks and even did good on the last 3 days of giving up sweets, TV and computers. I just love how observant Joshua is at times and how he really gets things.
On this past Monday, both kids were home for President's day and we had a good time playing and watching TV. It was nice to just be able to hang out with them for a while. Allison decided she wanted to make cards for me & Doug and she was so excited about it. She decided to place them on each of our pillows, along with a piece of chocolate from her Valentine's candy stash. She could not wait for us to see them and immediately wanted Daddy to look on his bed right when he got home - she couldn't stand the wait. I don't have to guess what her love language is - she loves to shower people with gifts, wrapping them and creating cards.
What a blessing they are to us!!
Last month, our church encouraged us to participate in a 21 day fast. This was part of an awakening movement for us to draw closer to God and see Him at work. Doug & I each chose to give up something and the kids were given a calendar that they could follow. Each day on the calendar had something that they would give up for that day (TV, sweets, computers, etc). About 3 days into the fast, Joshua told me he wasn't going to have chocolate milk for dinner that night. He usually gets chocolate milk, since he really needs those extra calories. I asked why and he said, "If you are not going to drink Diet Coke then I'm not going to drink chocolate milk". I told him it would still be for a few more weeks and he said, "That's okay, I don't need to drink chocolate milk". And that little guy didn't drink any chocolate milk during the rest of the 21 days. We hadn't even made a big deal of them giving up something - we just asked them to try and follow the calendar. They did great through the 3 weeks and even did good on the last 3 days of giving up sweets, TV and computers. I just love how observant Joshua is at times and how he really gets things.
On this past Monday, both kids were home for President's day and we had a good time playing and watching TV. It was nice to just be able to hang out with them for a while. Allison decided she wanted to make cards for me & Doug and she was so excited about it. She decided to place them on each of our pillows, along with a piece of chocolate from her Valentine's candy stash. She could not wait for us to see them and immediately wanted Daddy to look on his bed right when he got home - she couldn't stand the wait. I don't have to guess what her love language is - she loves to shower people with gifts, wrapping them and creating cards.
What a blessing they are to us!!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Moving, Marathon, and just a Mom
This was going to be the title of my blog back in the summer of 2011, but it never got written. Everyone always says the years will fly by and boy, were they right. 2011 was really a great year for our family full of lots of changes! There may be more posts summarizing last year or I may just move on to 2012. I have got to get better about this blog, so that I can all these memories written down!
Moving
After years of talking about moving, in March, we decided to put our house on the market to see if it would sell. After some busy weeks of digging through closets and finding things we hadn't touched since moving into the house in 2000 - we made lots of trips to Goodwill. Then, after a renting a storage shed to house a lot of our stuff - we were ready to put it on the market. We apprehensively started looking at new homes and meeting with a builder about building a new home, but we weren't ready to do anything until our house sold. In May, while Doug and I were in Dallas for a mini-getaway - we got the call with an offer on the home and after a couple of days of negotiations, we had a contract and were on our way! Now we had to really get moving on the home buying. We decided to go with a builder and get what we wanted in our house and stay in the same school district. Unfortunately, that meant finding somewhere temporarily to live. So, we rented a 2 bedroom apartment, put most of our stuff in storage and made the move. We closed on our home on July 22nd and stayed in an apartment until November. We closed on our brand new home on November 10th and we love it. We are the only house on our street, so we just like to imagine that we just bought a bunch of land...and this is all ours. :) It has been great to have more room, let the kids have their own rooms, and have a basement!
Marathon
In January of 2011, after a lot of fun discussions with family and my awesome running partner, Stacy - I decided to run a full marathon. I had read a great article discussing the best first marathons and thought the Portland, Oregon marathon sounded like a great option and a fun place for our family to visit. Stacy was going to train for the Des Moines race while I trained for mine. Training began in June for the race in October and there were a lot of early mornings runs all summer long! I look back and still can't believe I woke up at 4:45 am to be out running by 5:15 am on many mornings, but avoiding the hot temps made it worthwhile. We had some great runs and it was so much fun to have someone to train with. The plan was to run the marathon with Doug, his dad and his sister, but due to medical issues - it ended up being me and my father-in-law, Doug. I couldn't have asked for a better race partner than someone who was running his 20th marathon! Marathon training does take over your life for a few months and it became all I thought about, talked about and planned for. I don't think I could commit to one every year...but, I'm ready to start planning my next one for 2013. I'll try to write another post about that great trip, but I can say that Oregon is a beautiful place to visit!
Just a Mom
Allison finished preschool in May of 2011 and we registered her for kindergarten at the time. As the summer went by and as I realized that I would no longer be a mom of a preschooler...I kind of struggled with what I was. I was no longer a mom of a baby, preschooler, child at home...I was now just a mom. I know I was still mom of Joshua and Allison, but it's hard when it's not the major part of your daily activities. I love having the chance to continue staying home and it allows me to get a lot done during the day. Joshua still has a lot of doctor appts, therapy visits, etc, so it would be hard to actually try to fit a work schedule in there, too. I keep focusing on the fact that being a mom is my job now and even though the mornings can start early & the nights can sometimes go late - there is nothing I'd rather be doing.
Well, that is all for now. I better get this posted today or I might never get it done. Hopefully more to come....
Moving
After years of talking about moving, in March, we decided to put our house on the market to see if it would sell. After some busy weeks of digging through closets and finding things we hadn't touched since moving into the house in 2000 - we made lots of trips to Goodwill. Then, after a renting a storage shed to house a lot of our stuff - we were ready to put it on the market. We apprehensively started looking at new homes and meeting with a builder about building a new home, but we weren't ready to do anything until our house sold. In May, while Doug and I were in Dallas for a mini-getaway - we got the call with an offer on the home and after a couple of days of negotiations, we had a contract and were on our way! Now we had to really get moving on the home buying. We decided to go with a builder and get what we wanted in our house and stay in the same school district. Unfortunately, that meant finding somewhere temporarily to live. So, we rented a 2 bedroom apartment, put most of our stuff in storage and made the move. We closed on our home on July 22nd and stayed in an apartment until November. We closed on our brand new home on November 10th and we love it. We are the only house on our street, so we just like to imagine that we just bought a bunch of land...and this is all ours. :) It has been great to have more room, let the kids have their own rooms, and have a basement!
 |
| Our new home after the first snow fall |
Marathon
In January of 2011, after a lot of fun discussions with family and my awesome running partner, Stacy - I decided to run a full marathon. I had read a great article discussing the best first marathons and thought the Portland, Oregon marathon sounded like a great option and a fun place for our family to visit. Stacy was going to train for the Des Moines race while I trained for mine. Training began in June for the race in October and there were a lot of early mornings runs all summer long! I look back and still can't believe I woke up at 4:45 am to be out running by 5:15 am on many mornings, but avoiding the hot temps made it worthwhile. We had some great runs and it was so much fun to have someone to train with. The plan was to run the marathon with Doug, his dad and his sister, but due to medical issues - it ended up being me and my father-in-law, Doug. I couldn't have asked for a better race partner than someone who was running his 20th marathon! Marathon training does take over your life for a few months and it became all I thought about, talked about and planned for. I don't think I could commit to one every year...but, I'm ready to start planning my next one for 2013. I'll try to write another post about that great trip, but I can say that Oregon is a beautiful place to visit!
Just a Mom
Allison finished preschool in May of 2011 and we registered her for kindergarten at the time. As the summer went by and as I realized that I would no longer be a mom of a preschooler...I kind of struggled with what I was. I was no longer a mom of a baby, preschooler, child at home...I was now just a mom. I know I was still mom of Joshua and Allison, but it's hard when it's not the major part of your daily activities. I love having the chance to continue staying home and it allows me to get a lot done during the day. Joshua still has a lot of doctor appts, therapy visits, etc, so it would be hard to actually try to fit a work schedule in there, too. I keep focusing on the fact that being a mom is my job now and even though the mornings can start early & the nights can sometimes go late - there is nothing I'd rather be doing.
Well, that is all for now. I better get this posted today or I might never get it done. Hopefully more to come....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)