Long time...

no blog. Right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the catching up that needs to be done on Christmas and New Years but that's not where my heart is right now.

This weekend I went to my parent's for a kid-free "mommy vacation" which was Dan's generous idea. I was so happy to be able to go.

I took my time driving up, relishing the fact that I was alone in the car. I stopped to photograph a church that I've always wanted to, but never had a convenient time to do so.


Mom and Dad and I hung out. My first night there we sat in front of the fire and I listened as they each told stories of growing up and stories about some of their relatives. That is not our usual scenario. There is usually alot more TV and kid noise. It was so pleasant and I went to bed thinking, "Every child should be so lucky" to have a night like that one.

We slept in, worked, shopped, ate, etc.

And then Saturday was a beautiful day. We decided to take a "photography field trip" as I like to call them, since dad got the new Rebel for Christmas. He suggested a bridge by a river near their house.


When we got there, we had a good time trading notes and settings, and we discovered a trail that went all around the river. We just kept strolling and taking pictures.

And it was on the way back to our car that Dad started having trouble breathing. We stopped to rest but it became clear that something was wrong, when every time he continued to walk after a rest, he'd have to stop again after about 10 yards.

We made it to a field adjacent to a road. Dad and I went through a hole in the fence while my mom ran to get the car so she could pick us up.

I hadn't really felt scared until I was there alone with him. He was perched on some rusty farm equipment struggling to breathe and then he started coughing and choking. For that moment time stood still. I have never felt so helpless.




Mom arrived quickly and we went to the emergency room. They tested him for everything from heart attack to asthma. It turn out he had a large blood clot in each lung. He was immediately started on blood thinners and was admitted to the hospital.

He is doing well. Just as he said he was. From the beginning, he insisted, "I feel fine! I just can't breathe!". He'll probably be going home soon and continue on blood thinners for 6-9 months. They also discovered that he has diabetes

It wasn't until I got in the car Sunday morning to drive home, that I came down off my "high" of adrenaline. What had happened started to sink in and I drove home in a puddle.

It's been a wake up call-of health,of preparation, of expression of love, of Providence, of many things. God's hand is in every single thing.




And I love my dad.

On this day

seven years ago, Dan and I were young and skinny and in love. I'm still young, Dan is still skinny and we're both still in love.


Here would be the spot I would insert a cute little picture of us. Maybe even one from our wedding day. But since I'm not in the same locale as my photos, just scroll down to the end of the last post instead.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Here's to 70 more!

December Stuff

So my tree still doesn't look all that great and I'm happily accepting the fact that it won't. I got some greenery hung, but not the stockings. In lieu of beautifully composed pictures of holiday cheer, here's a look back at what's been happening the past week, with quite possibly some of the worst pictures I've taken in a while.

Luke continues to be a mischievous coot. He'd probably be in lots more trouble if he weren't so cute.
He still pushes his chair to the counters to get what he needs, in this case a cracker. And now he has even started climbing all the way up onto the counter.

I feel like I'm losing a son and gaining a daughter. Luke was such a mama's boy and now is drifting more and more to his daddy. Just like Ava did and at about the same age too. And little by little, Ava is preferring me to do things with and for her that previously were Daddy's territory.

Though as it is, the second Dan walks in the door, the kids are literally stuck to him like magnets.
Here they are in the middle of a "dancing" session.


Ava willingly drank her first cup of hot chocolate (it's gotten cold here!) It wasn't love at first drink but she gave it a fair shot.


I have been sewing like crazy, finishing a quilt for the Young Women to give to their pen pal in Israel who has leukemia. I am sad that I forgot to take a picture! And I have been working on my mom's Christmas present. And I won't put up it's picture til she's seen it...

Christmas came a little early when Ava, knowing we were fully engaged with our guests, opened up the presents that were under the tree.

They were all for the kids, sent by my sister in law, Christina. Thanks, again! They are all loved.

We dressed up for family home evening last night.

Ava was Mary,



and Dan was Joseph.


I was a wise man and Luke was a shepherd who lost his headdress. His favorite part was the singing as usual. He always dances and claps along.


I took some family pictures for our friends. And it quickly became apparent that taking a group picture is a whole different story than that of a child or two. I took over 400 pictures and there were about 2 in which everyone is looking at least pleasant and in the right direction. I wish I was even exaggerating.


And I hope Val will forgive me for posting this one, cause it's my favorite. She doesn't like it much, but, Val, you look like a fox!

Aren't they pretty?

Then Val came and took our family picture on the first try cause she's good like that. I'm not posting that though, because then you wouldn't be surprised when you get our Christmas/New Year's card. But here's one of me and Dan just for fun!


So, yeah, I feel like I've been busy but my to-do list hasn't gotten any shorter. Maybe because when I should be doing something productive, I sit here and do this instead.

So now's about the time

I should be making a post called "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" or something clever and putting up pictures of our fabulous tree and stockings and decorations.

And If I have my way, sometime before we leave town, I will feel like those things are picture worthy. Trouble is, It's Begining to Look a Lot Like a Toddler Lives Here at Christmas.

The tree is really, not looking it's best. We decorated it with the kids, knowing full well that we'd have to re-decorate at a later time when they were asleep or something. But we haven't gotten to that yet. We are going to have to break up some "famawees" (families) and hope Ava doesn't notice.

She likes to hang all like objects together. When I'd hand her one, she'd stop and look and say, "hmmm...where is his famawee?" And then when she'd spot the place they were all hanging together, she'd hang up another brother or sister right in a line.

The Red Ball famawee

The hard to see, Green Bird Famawee

And maybe if we could just get all the ornaments up and then ignore the tree completely, Luke might too. Instead I keep finding trails of ornaments through the house. Here's one in my sewing stuff,


One under the futon,


One more behind the briefcase,



And there are always a few victims hanging out under the tree.


I finally got some hooks to hang up the greenery and stockings but haven't gotten to that yet either. My intentions have been good. My execution has not. Upon arriving home from Thanksgiving, there was strep throat, followed by sick Ava with an ear infection, and then this week, Luke has croup which we discovered after one really scary incident where he couldn't breathe. He's on the mend but I just haven't been on top of things lately.

And passing by the nativity this morning, I found that Mary and Joseph have a friendly visitor of the polar variety.

One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong!

And now I am thinking, maybe I shouldn't fight it. Maybe the tree should look like it was decorated by a three year old and I should let my little boy enjoy pilfering the plastic ornaments and strewing them around the house. Because this is their house too, and really the magic of Christmas and the accompanying traditions are mostly for them. Of course we enjoy it all but I want them to enjoy it too.

Spreading Sunshine

Antiobiotics 1
Strep throat 0

That was the final score. And after Antibiotics' easy victory, it has moved on to face it's next hopeless opponent, Ear Infection! (Ava) It's not looking good for Ear Infection!

Earlier this week Ava woke up from her nap crying that her ear hurt. A trip to the Urgent Care confirmed the diagnosis of ear infection. It was Thursday and that morning Ava had returned to preschool for the first time since Thanksgiving break. She was so happy to go back.


After I picked her up from school, she stood in line with me at the fabric store, in her new purple sparkly shoes, chanting in her sing-songy voice, "happy, happy, happy, happy!" I asked her, "Are you happy?" And her reply was "Yes!...happy, happy, happy!"


As our turn to checkout arrived, she asked me, as she has been doing quite often recently, "Mom, can I say hi?" of course I told her she could. She said "hi"and began a little conversation with the cashier. She had already chatted it up with the customer behind us, as well as the employee who cut our fabric.

As we left, there were three happy people, waving and saying, "Bye, Ava!" and she happily waved and goodbyed herself out the door.

Then she went home for a rest and woke up to a painful ear.



At the Urgent Care office she did her usual, "Can I say hi?" ordeal and made friends with the receptionist. And then the medical assistant. And then the doctor. He liked her so much, he ran out of the exam room to get her a piece of candy from his own stash. And while we waited for the discharge papers she even charmed another nurse. And as we left, literally an entire office of smiling and waving people, said, "Bye, Ava! Feel better!"


And then we stopped at the pharmacy to get her medicine. I usually just go through the drive through and it doesn't take too long, but after we did the drop off, and we were waiting, Ava was saying she was hungry. So we went in to get her a little snack. Once we were inside it was just easier to go to the back and wait for her medicine.

And it was there that she met the pharmacy tech. I told them we would be picking up the medicine inside instead of the drive through. The tech recognized us and said, "oh, then you must be Ava." And so it began again.

As we waited, Ava was admiring the selection of nuts. She asked if they were for squirrels or people and looked at all the different kinds. And before we knew it, the older gentleman in line ahead of us, who was checking out at this point, turned around and handed Ava a bag of cashews he bought for her. He said, he just couldn't resist. Then she and the pharmacist got to talking.

And as you may well guess, we left the pharmacy, with a similar farewell, "Bye, Ava!"

When we got into the car, these events of our day replayed through my mind. It was really almost silly, because this was all just in one day. Honestly, we've never had a day like that. Ava has her moments, as we all do, where her attitude and emotions are at a positive peak or negative valley and our days follow in that same motion-up and down, up and down. It was kind of neat how the peak had literally lasted the whole day.

I wanted her to recognize it all. I started talking to her about all that had happened. The way she had talked and acted and the positive effect she had had on those she met. The way they were all so taken with her, drawn to her. I could see her thinking back as I mentioned each location and person. I told her she had "spread sunshine" that day. (I don't know where I get this stuff sometimes!)

Since then, she has inquired about the sunshine that I told her she had inside. "Is there any left?", "How do I let it out?", "When I open my mouth does it come out?" I'm still not sure she completely gets it.

But, she asks me after we leave a place, "did I spread sunshine, Mom?"

One time I said, "a little bit." (You can guess how she had behaved)

And she said, "I don't want to spread sunshine a lil bit!"

I said, "You don't?"

"No, I wanna spread sunshine a lotta bit!"



Ava is like two little people. At one end she can be what some consider "birth control" (true story) and on the other she can be a bright spot that strangers can't even resist. Such a dichotomy.

And while I thought about her and all the nooks and crannies of her personality, I realized that no matter if we are 3 or 33, the way we interact with people can have just as strong an effect. I may not charm the checker at the grocery store the way a child could, but every person I come in contact with, will feel better or worse depending on our interactions.

This isn't new. I already know this, as evidenced by how just a small gesture like a smile or hello can change how I am feeling. It doesn't take much to build someone up or break them down.

Though now I have a renewed perspective.

I, too, wanna spread sunshine a lotta bit!

"Beefy"

That's the word the nurse practitioner at Urgent Care used to describe the inside of my throat.

Swallowing my own saliva had started to feel like I was choking down a ball of dried glue and roofing nails.

It's strep throat, that's why. And I am so glad about that because I worried it would be a virus, whose only treatment is time.

And this "sore throat" wasn't even touched by any remedy I know. It didn't care about gargling with warm salt water, numbing lozenges, ibuprofen. It just didn't care. So strep throat and amoxicillin sound great to me!

Yay for antibiotics!

Yay for a husband who will take off the worst day of the month of work to care for 2 vivacious children when he doesn't even feel well himself!

Yay for losing 3 pounds of Thanksgiving weight by not being able to eat!

Friday Observance of A Thursday Occasion

After what should have been 4.75 hours of driving, we arrived home from Dallas in 8.25 hours!

It was clear last night, that a) alot of people live in Texas and b) most of them were driving home from a delightful Thanksgiving holiday on I-35.


It was the first year I've ever spent Thanksgiving Day eating Black Forest Ham sandwiches on a picnic at the lake. We decided to observe the holiday on Friday because Mimi (my Grandma) was arriving that Thursday afternoon from Kentucky. And we wanted to give Ian (my brother and one of the biggest Thanksgiving-dinner-lovers) an extra day to get over a stomach bug.

So Thursday afternoon we found ourselves at the lake with some Indian and Hispanic families that were not celebrating the holiday that day either.


We met Santiago for the first time on this trip,



Ava idolized her cousin Sofia, insisting that all wardrobe and hair-do's match accordingly. I liked to think of them as the "hair cousins". They both have long flowing locks.


Oliver was there too,

As were Dan and Mom,

Luke,


And Cristina, Ian, and Mimi,


I had a chance to practice my night-time, by-the-fire photoing skills. Most of them didn't turn out so well, but this one worked out okay.


Friday's dinner was a success. The preparation was all-inclusive. Each couple/individual had a couple of dishes assigned to them.

Mimi working on the stuffing,


Ian helped out by getting all the junk out of the inside of the turkey. He's a better man than me. I could never do it. I once broke a pair of tongs inside a raw chicken. I just can't handle that kind of thing.

I was impressed, here he is digging...digging...it's still a little frozen... digging..


and TA-DA!


Before dinner hit the table, we all went and got gussied up. Do you dress up for Thanksgiving? It's totally optional in our family. I even remember a photograph of Thanksgiving past where my brother and I are sitting at the "kids table" together, me in my fancy Sunday dress and he in his clown pajamas.

Dan and I were definitely more casual this year, but Mom helped Ava and Sofia with their make-up




and they were glamorous!



The spread was large:


turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, jello-salad, corn pudding, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, olives and pickles, cranberry sauce,


as well as apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies.


Nobody held back,



Especially, Oliver




And I think the only things that could have made it better were if the whole family was there and it was all calorie-free.