The Gingham Sweater is Finished

I finally finished the Gingham sweater for Deborah.

I've been stalling adding the button as I'm a bit sad to be finishing it.

It has been such a fun project to work on and I can't find another challenging project that appeals to me as much as this one did. Hmmm... sounds like I need to spend more time in a knitting shop. Well, not just in any knitting shop, but in The Woolie Ewe in Dallas. :)

We have mating ... and pregnant ... sea monkeys. Oh, boy.

Thanks for the new t-shirts, Grandma and Grandpa!


Your silly grandkids loved them!

Isn't this a cute picture of Deborah and Jacob?

Jessica made this mask for her Theater Arts class.

It was a remake of a famous mask.

Another Drawing by Jessica

Jessica drew this for one of her school friends, Morgan.

David's Simple Apple Lab

For school this week, David had to do a Science lab. The purpose of the lab was to see if a solution of lemon juice and water would slow the chemical process that causes apples to brown when exposed to oxygen.

If you know David, then you know that he has a very intelligent, curious mind. The first attempt at this lab consisted of slicing up an apple and covering each individual slice with a variety of things: lemon juice, water, crushed vitamin C, orange juice, and spit. (Yes, spit. His spit. Ew.) Then he found out that his teacher wanted the lab limited to just water and a lemon juice & water solution. But, we learned from this experiment that lemon juice works best followed closely by orange juice. Spit ... not at all.

So, he cut an apple in half and soaked one side in water and the other side in the lemon juice/water solution. "Doesn't the chemical change require oxygen?" I asked several hours into the experiment. Ugh. But we learned from this experiment that apples when soaked in a lemon/water solution starts to become apple mush in just a few short hours.


He started all over. By this point he had used my cheap apples and so he moved on to my deliciously sweet and crisp Honey Crisp Apples. $2.99 a pound apples. He cut the apple in half. Dipped one side in water. Dipped the other side in a lemon juice & water solution. Waited for 6 hours. Guess what we learned? Honey Crisp Apples don't really brown.

Crockpot Heaven

For a while now, I have been trying to use my crockpot/slow cooker more frequently. A good friend even gave me her recipe booklet and we've learned lots of new tricks from it.

Tonight my friend, Kelli, showed me a great website that I just had to share:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

And, from there, you may also want to check out Slow Cooking Thursday:

http://familycorner.blogspot.com/2008/02/slow-cooking-thursday.html

If you make any of the recipes, let me know what you think of them. Maybe I'll try it ... or avoid it ... based on your recommendation.

Jacob and Dwight went to the Priesthood session of conference tonight. It looks like they had a good time. I wish I had taken the picture when they still had their ties and suit coats on. They sure looked handsome!

2 Ear Infections

We went to see Dr. Rhame today. (Have I mentioned that he's really the very best pediatrician ever?) Ryan has no fever today, but is still draining fluid from his right ear. A lot of fluid. The verdict: both ears are infected and the right ear drum is ruptured (again).

Rx: 10 days of Amoxicillin. If he's starts running a fever again, or if his ear is still draining on Monday, then we'll go back in to see Dr. Rhame again.

He slept in 15 minute increments last night. So, needless-to-say, I am very tired tonight. I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep.

Dwight was a sweetheart tonight and took care of all the kids plus Kelli's little girl, Rebecca, while Kelli and I went to a Fab Friday. Fab Friday was basically a ladies night out for making crafts. I made a great magnetic board, and Kelli made 4 magnets for me. Plus, I etched a family name on to two glass Pyrex pans to use as a wedding gift next month. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow of both projects.

I'm super tired so I'll post more tomorrow.

Ryan woke up in a really good mood today. He hasn't had a fever for a couple of days now. I thought he must have kicked whatever it was just with extra rest and fluids. But, then when we started therapy, I laid Ryan down and noticed he had some kind of puss oozing from his ear.

It seems he has an ear infection. I called the Pediatrician. He called in a prescription for Amoxicillin and will see him first thing in the morning.

I'm a little bummed about this. Obviously, I don't want the munchkin to have an ear infection. But, I was also looking forward to a couple of days without any appointments. Oh, well. I'm thankful it's just an ear infection and not something contagious.

My friend, Kelli came into town tonight. It's so great to see her! Kelli brought her 2 year old with her also. Deborah and Rebecca seem to be really enjoying each other! I think we'll take them to the zoo tomorrow. It should be fun!

Just thought you'd enjoy seeing that Jacob has been hard at work on school stuff.

Seriously????

Seriously????

I suppose I should say, Wow! That's really cool! But, seriously??? That's great that a Mom has time to do beautiful, creative hairstyles on her little girls. But, really??? Is there really a Mom out there that has enough extra time to create a blog on it? And, did you see the number of followers???

I'm bewildered. Maybe I'd follow it, too, IF Deborah would hold still for more than 2 seconds at a time. I can't imagine trying to do a string of "double knots" on a child who is giggling and jumping the entire time.

Sorry for the sarcasm...

Things always seem a little better in the morning...

Today's Neurologist Appointment

I just got home about 30 minutes ago. It's been a very long day, but I wanted to quickly let you know what the Neurologist said today. We are increasing Ryan's Lamictal and keeping the Keppra dosage the same. We'll do this for 2 months and then we anticipate lowering the Keppra, if there is no increase in seizure activity.

We are going to do another MRI in late October. We've known since January, when we did the 1st MRI, that we would need to do another MRI. This 2nd MRI should give us a more definitive idea of the diagnosis for Ryan.

Dr Seals also checked Ryan's head circumference today, it has slowed in growth. He's now in about the 75th or 80th percentile. He also checked Ryan's reflexes today. In May, Dr Seals had recorded "2+ reflexes", which I think means "normal". But today, he was unable to elicit any reflex response from Ryan. I suspect that's not a good thing.

I'll update more later. I'm tired tonight and think I'll head to bed.

Update on Ryan

Ryan started running a low grade fever Sunday night. He went to bed at his usual 10'ish and woke up at 1 with the "scared-to-death" cry. There seemed to be nothing I could do to soothe him. This lasted for about 2 minutes. (Our neurologist thinks these may be "break through seizures.") He did this about 3 times and then finally went back to sleep at about 2 am.

When I still hadn't heard anything from Ryan at 10.30 am on Monday, I started to worry a little. I went into check on him and was so relieved when I felt his chest moving up and down. He didn't stir at all to my touch. I decided to let him sleep a little while longer. I went in again at 11.30 am. He was still doing fine. I went in again at 12.30 pm and changed his diaper. He slept through the whole thing. Did not stir, at all. I checked in on him again at 1.30, and finally decided to wake him at 2 pm. I got him out of bed and spent the next 45 minutes getting him to drink his medicine, drop by drop. He was asleep again by 3 pm. He slept most of the rest of the day with just brief periods of wakefulness.

I took his temperature and it was at 101 degrees F at 2 pm and down to 99 degrees F by 9 pm that evening. He repeated the same "scared-to-death" cry last night, but woke at his usual 9.30 am. He has been running a low-grade fever (not higher than 100) all day, and has been unusually cranky. However, he has been more wakeful today. He doesn't appear to be cutting teeth. His congestion has cleared up quite a bit. I don't see anything that is concerning, other than his fever, his crankiness, and his unusual sleep patterns.

He has been having clusters of seizures today. It's my understanding though that additional seizures are pretty typical when a child with a seizure disorder has a fever or an illness.

My day is already crazy busy tomorrow, but I'm thinking I probably need to squeeze in an appointment to see the Pediatrician. Maybe he has an ear infection? We have an appointment with the Neurologist tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, he's the best of the best so it'll probably take 6-8 hours.

I've only had about 4 hours of sleep for the past few nights. So, I'm off to bed. I have some fun updates and pictures of the other kids. I'll try to get to them tomorrow night! I'll be sure to post an update on the appointments tomorrow. Keep him in your prayers, please. Love you all!

Great Harvest Tour

Today we went on a tour of the Great Harvest Bread Company here in San Antonio. Kent Gottfredson, the owner, did the tour and was GREAT with the kids! All of the kids ... even Johnathon ... were enthralled with the tour and had a great time. At the end of the tour, they gave all of us free bread samples, a small loaf of their delicious honey wheat bread, some wheat seeds to plant, and a coupon. It was lots of fun! A great way to spend a school day.

Ryan loves to listen to music with Jessica.

Deborah just loves everything!

After a decade, the trauma has settled enough that I was willing to risk it again. The Sea Monkeys are back!


Oh, you don't know about the trauma? About 10 years ago, my sweet little Jacob dumped a container full of those little "monkeys" on my bed. Ewwww.... I had dreams for several nights ... bad dreams ... about those creepy looking little critters crawling all over me. Still gives me the creeps.


Kind of odd that Sea Monkeys would give me the creeps. When I was a little girl, I loved Sea Monkeys. Didn't every kid? Do you remember the ads? The little critters swimming through rings, happily sitting around a dinner table, kissing, tossing balls back and forth, smiling, and waving. I remember seeing those ads and thinking that if I could ever get things just right then they'd look like the happy little monkeys in the pictures.


In buying them for Johnathon, a part of me still hoped that they would look like the cute little pictures of smiling people like critters. I anxiously waited with Johnathon for a couple of days as we watched every few hours to see the sea monkeys hatching. In the name of helping Johnathon, I have protected the sea monkeys from hands that might destroy the chances of the Sea Monkeys growing up to smile and wave at us as they swim through their aquarium.

But, tonight as I looked at the 1/8 inch creature swimming around, reality struck. My cute little Sea Monkeys really look like this:


Creepy.

Trials and Inspirations

Many of you know that we have had a few challenges over the past year or so. Some of you may also be aware that recently I have personally struggled with a few challenges (unrelated to Ryan) that I thought were over and resolved a long time ago. What most of you may know not (I hope) is that these challenges have really shaken my foundation. For the first time, I felt angry and betrayed. (It's not the first time I've ever been angry, but it was the first time I've ever felt anger about this particular issue.) Anyway ... my anger was really directed at God. I felt so child like. "Why? Why is this haunting me now? I've worked so hard! I've tried so hard! Why?"

In retrospect, even though it hasn't been long, I suspect my anger at God was really displaced feelings of anger toward those who had really betrayed me. Unfortunately, this anger caused me to pull far away from all the things that I know to be true and all the things that I know ... from experimentation ... to bring me peace.

As a parent, one is not given the luxury of dropping out, even for a time, and must always recognize that every move is being watched by impressionable eyes. So, Sunday I went to church. For those of you who don't know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which I attend has a lay ministry. Instead of a preacher or pastor who teaches, our members give talks during our Sacrament meeting. Three talks were given on Sunday ... all of which seemed written just to me. One young man, who must just be 16-18 years of age, bore such a strong testimony of the love our Father in Heaven has for us that it softened my heart.

One of the songs that we sang was "I Need Thee Every Hour." (You can read the words to this beautiful hymn, just clink on the link.) I was listening to the words and felt a surge of emotions when I read "Oh make me thine indeed, Thou Blessed Son!" Really that's what I really want! I want to be His. I want to reflect the light that He gives to me, and I have missed feeling that light and love. I do need Him. Don't we all?

At the bottom of the hymn, it listed a couple of scriptures that reflect the same message as the hymn. I turned to 2 Nephi 4:16-35, which is found in the Book of Mormon. In case you don't know, the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ. Like the Bible tells of accounts of Jesus in the European countries, the Book of Mormon tells of accounts of Jesus in the Americas. I've read this passage, 2 Nephi 4:16-35, lots of times. But on Sunday I applied the scripture to me. I thought of how it could be me stating the words:

I know in whom I have trusted, my God hath been my support. He hath filled me with His love. He hath heard my cry by day and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night time. Angels came down and ministered unto me. Upon the wings of His spirit hath my body been carried away. And my eyes have beheld great things.

Why [then] should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, ... and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions? Why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul! Do not anger again. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, I have trusted in Thee, and I will trust in Thee forever.

I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. My God will give me, if I ask not amiss. I will lift up my voice unto Thee. I will cry unto thee, my God! My voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock, and mine Everlasting God.


Pretty powerful, right? As I was recording my thoughts on this scripture, I also found a previous note that I had made: "Cease to focus on the tempest and turn our focus to Him." I had stopped focusing on Him and only focused on me. I was so busy asking "Why?" that I failed to recall all of the many miracles that I have seen. I failed to remember the many blessings that have come from the challenges I have faced. I failed to recall how loved I have felt by the Lord.

I have experienced some really difficult challenges in my life. I have seen some of the worst things imaginable to humans. But in those times of challenges, I have also seen the tender mercies of the Lord, and many miraculous events.

For a time, I allowed myself to forget all the glorious things I have seen and focus on all the wrong things. I felt darkness and discouragement trying to overcome me. But I also felt the sweet promptings of the Spirit calling me back to the Light.

Do you remember the story in the 2nd Book of Kings? The King of Syria was warring with Israel. At night the city was encircled by horses and chariots. It seemed the battle would be lost. When the servant asked Elisha, the Prophet, "How shall we do?" The Prophet answered, "Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them." The Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire.

Don't you love that story? I do. It reminds me that although the adversary is always fighting for us, the Lord and his host of angels are always pulling for us. The Lord wants to bless us. He loves us!

So I will be more faithful. I will remember the many blessings I have been given and I will assist in my fight. I will turn again to the scriptures and to prayer to bring me peace.

I appreciate my many friends and family who bless my life. I especially appreciate my good friend who gave me such wise counsel. You know who you are. Thank you for drawing on your professional and spiritual knowledge to help me. And, I appreciate my good friend who has not allowed me to just brush this under the carpet. I love you all and pray God's sweetest blessings on all of my friends. He does love each of us!