Weekend without the Nuns

Last Saturday, we and the Marcks were looking for something fun to do and get out of the house. Many attractions we thought of were a bit out of whack as far as hours of operation and even being open at all due to the hurricane.

We decided on a miniature horse farm/monastery about an hour north of us. Getting there was an adventure in and of itself but we finally made it!

I think we were all secretly hoping to be able to see some nuns, after all, their website clearly show pictures of nuns with horses. But wouldn't you know we didn't even see one?! In talking with some of the workers there, sadly, the nun population has been decreasing as they age. Currently there were 4 nuns living on the farm and 2 were in their 90's. The man told us, "I guess it just isn't that popular to be a nun anymore." Kind of sad.

While we didn't see any nuns we did see some pretty cute miniature horses and dogs. As we drove there I explained to Ava that these horses were going to be just her size and she cut pet them. Somehow that translated in her mind to "princess ponies" which she talked about incessantly the remainder of the trip. It's all about the princesses these days. Princesses and mermaids.


Val and I were of course representin' with our big cameras, snap, snap, snapping pictures. For me there were some of the scenery, some of the animals, and lots of the kids.

Momma and Baby

2 weeks old

Jorgie and Ava brush the horse

We do have some pretty cute kids.

Lainey

Lainey and Quentin playing in the dirt

Ava being her silly self

Luke, pink and sweaty

Sweety-pie Jorgie

Luke basically walked around in his "man" shoes and could have cared less about anything else. He was hot and sweaty and glad to be on his own.


Lainey was doing pretty much the same thing.


There was also an "art barn" on the farm where the kids painted pottery.

Val and Clara

All in all a really fun day. And had our weekend ended on that note, no one would have complained.

Unfortunately, Luke had a very rough night that night, woke up with a fever, and by 8 am I was noticing some gunk dripping out of his ear. By 9:30 am that gunk had turned red, and by 4 pm, that gunk was mostly blood. I gave him the ear drops prescribed to him when he had the tubes put in, at the instruction of the on-call ENT, but by that evening, the discharge was so much, and so bloody, and his fever was even higher, that I took him to Urgent Care. The doctor couldn't even see in his ear because there was so much yucky stuff. She prescribed an oral antiobiotic as well.




The next morning I followed up with the only ENT in Houston apparently, who was not out of town at a conference. That appoiuntment is a blur, but they suctioned out his ear with a heinous looking machine and the doctor told me that the ear is badly infected, eardrum ruptured, and the tube had fallen out. He said the other ear tube is blocked and is falling out. I will take him back next week for another follow up and discuss putting the tubes back in. The thing about Luke is, he may get fussy and pull some attitude but the kid can have blood literally dripping out of his ear with a fever, and he pretty much just tools around minding his own business, playing with his toys. I think I'm gonna keep him.