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A Third Cub of the Week

Andrew was named a "Cub of the Week" on Friday. The character pillar focus for this month is Fairness. Fairness is represented by the orange dog tag. We're very proud of Andrew for exhibiting enough fairness to be named. If we make Cub of the Month, we'll be sure to let you know via blog.

Sleep would be such sweet relief!

Rebekah has developed---ok, we've enabled her to develop---a nasty habit. Whenever she wakes up in the night, we just bring her into our bed. This used to happen at 6:30am but has worked it's way back to around midnight. When she's in our bed, Sean & I don't sleep well. That girl can take up enough space to dislodge two adults from a queen sized waterbed.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I had enough of this. I worked with her from 4:00am until 6:30am (Sean actually took over negotiations from 5:30-6:30) to get her to go back to sleep in her crib. Thurs./Fri. Sean took the midnight-1am shift and I continued his work from 1-2:30am. Last night we may have made a breakthrough. She was only up from 5-5:20 (but I stayed in the room until 5:30 to make sure she was out).

I think it's the cute Dora the Explorer pajamas that keep that child from harm. With her binkie and sleep tousseled (or bed head) hair and those cute PJ's with both Dora and Boots the Monkey staring at you--what can you do?? All you can do is love her to bits and hope she'll someday learn to sleep.

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E

Andrew was one of seven students from his school who qualified to go to the district spelling bee. He had to pass a written round and several oral rounds of spelling to qualify. When we were there, we had a practice written round, an official written round and finally oral rounds until there were only 5 students left.

Andrew did so well, but was not one of the 28 on stage. Out of 76, only 28 get to the oral rounds and only 5 (or less) can go forward. We were so proud of the other students from his school. Three out of 7 made it to the stage. Woo Hoo!!!

Due to 'confidentiality reasons', we weren't allowed to take any photos or videos during the Spelling Bee. Thankfully, we got a group shot (with the principal) before we started.

I think Andrew was a little bummed not to make it to the final rounds, but he was a great cheerleader for the others. We all felt so bad for the kids as they got knocked out. It was heartbreaking to hear them misspell the word. Quite a few tears were shed as they left the stage. One of our students made it to the last oral round before misspelling a word. (Go Kyle!)

The competition is open to 4-6th grade students. It was no surprise that 4 of the 5 going on were all in the 6th grade. We were just proud that so many of our fourth graders qualified. It was an amazing competition and lots of fun. It will be interesting to see if Andrew decides to try again next year. I'll admit we didn't study much for this so now he knows more of what it would take to continue onward.

Any way you look at it, we're so proud of him for trying and doing his best! It was a really fun day. (Andrew's bee is at about 5 o'clock around the hive.)

Miss Liz Retires

Last week, we had the opportunity to attend Miss Liz's retirement party. She's been a Kindermusik instructor for about 17 years and she has been our Kindermusik teacher for the past ten years.

Miss Liz is the one person who could keep calm in the face of any child tantrum, outburst or other behaviours that send normal moms off the deep end. Some recent health challenges made her choose early retirement. Please pray for her health and her mental well-being as she adjusts to the new life of retirement.

In fact, Liz was the first person to offer me a big dose of hope when we were going through Nathan's testing. She experienced his outbursts and meltdowns in class and she always said encouraging words to me (and him) and offered insight into some of the "why" behind his outbursts. In fact, Nathan wanted so much to win a green Kindermusik shirt from the door prizes at the party. I left my checkbook at home so I couldn't buy one--figured I buy one for his birthday and "surprise"--here's your green shirt.

The last drawing occurred before the final goodbye song. Miss Liz's last song as a teacher. When Nathan didn't win, he started to lose it and was going to give us a big outburst. I was trying to diffuse the situation and Liz stopped and came over to him, got down on his level and started to find out what was upsetting him. Well, he got his shirt (wearing it in the picture above), but Miss Liz held up her own retirement to help one more child. That's why we're going to be a little lonely without Miss Liz as our teacher.

Our high point is that Miss Liz is also our friend (not just our teacher) so we get to keep in touch and still be in each other's lives.

Flowers to brighten your day.

We loaned Nathan's teacher a bunch of baby gear over Christmas break for her gand-baby to use. She returned it with this beautiful bouquet of flowers. After two weeks, they are just now starting to lose petals. I have enjoyed them so much, thought you would like them, too.

No New Photos

I thought I'd let everyone know why there's no new photos this week. It's because I need your prayers. I have to believe that our family is under a great attack from the enemy because he knows something really great is coming our way from God.

Starting with last Wed., Jan. 9:
9th: Nathan finishes medicine for sinus infection
9th: Rebekah starts throwing up at 10:30pm
10th: Rebekah still sick
11th: Kids out of school, going to have fun day---Robyn gets sick
12th: Robyn still sick, Sean diagnosed with sinus infection
13th: Everyone stays home from church to get Dad, Mom & Rebekah back to 100%
14th: Robyn still tired, taking it easy and getting back into the swing of things
15th: Day goes great, looks like we're back on track
-----2:10am (or is it the 16th now): Nathan sick
16th: Nathan home from school sick
-----10:45pm: Andrew sick
17th: Nathan and Andrew home sick

Tomorrow, January 18, 2008: A new day.
Planning to send everyone to school and try to Clean up, Catch up and NOT Throw up.
So no photos.

It's 2:30am--what are your kids doing??

I'm awakened at about 1:15am to Rebekah crying in bed. Since Sean must have fallen asleep on the couch, I brought her to bed with me. I figure Sean will put her back in bed when he comes up.

At 2:10am, Rebekah is flailing around and trying to throw herself out of my bed. I've got her firmly attached to my bed with her own foot. Then I hear the pitter patter of the feet that belong to Nathan. (Nathan comes in at approximately 7:02 EVERY morning to ask if he can play computer before school.) I'm thinking he has his times mixed up. He tells me his tummy hurts and he doesn't feel good. Uh Oh!!

Hustle him to the bathroom (after moving Rebekah to lie spread-eagle in the center of the queen sized waterbed). This is where an almost-6-year-old perspective becomes fun. I tell him to be by the toilet if he's going to be sick. I tell him to be sick into that toilet. So he backs away from me and starts telling me he thinks he'd rather be in the other bathroom (the one without the dimmer on the lights and the brand new Mickey floor--I think not!).

At this exact moment in time, the poor child gets sick on my floor. Good thing my day fell apart on Monday so I didn't get "Bathroom Monday" taken care of. All bathrooms were on the Wed. cleaning hit parade.

After getting Nathan cleaned up and in fresh PJ's, I had the opportunity to scrub my floor at 2:30am. Poor kid feels bad about making a mess on my floor. Looking at the bright side, my bathroom floor is currently sterile and I have most of one bathroom cleaned already.

Pray for Nathan to feel better. Pray for Andrew to remain healthy!

Burma Shave

My job is keeping

Faces clean

And nobody knows

De stubble I've seen

Burma-Shave

If your peach

Keeps out of reach

Better practice

What we preach

Burma-Shave

Here's my personal contribution:

Raise your children

As you oughter

But should she shave

Since she's our daughter

Burma-Shave

When SUPER MOM isn't a super mom

It's humbling to have children. Really. They bring out the best---and worst---in you. I some days consider myself to be a SUPER MOM. I get my kids dressed and to school, no tardies, fed breakfast which I'm told is the most important meal of the day (OK--the school usually feeds them, but I make sure they have time to eat it). I even have SUPER MOM checks. No kidding, that's what they are called. (Here's one sample photo of the checks.)

Yesterday after lunch, I'm fighting off a headache. Must be from squinting into the sun on the drive home since I couldn't find my sunglasses. I'm bone-weary tired and of course, nobody will cooperate and let me take a little nap. By the time I'm chilled to the bone wearing multiple layers and blankets to keep warm, I'm thinking I may be coming down with a little bug.

It's true, I caught a form of Rebekah's bug. I got the nausea portion with fever (she never really fevered). I've been sleeping most of the evening, night, and day away. I'm feeling better, but praying for anyone I came into contact with. I truly wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

So SUPER MOM is now sleeping mom and Daddy's been doing a bang-up job of taking care of kids for me. He is fighting off a sinus infection (caught from the Nathan child) so I know it's hard on him, too.

My kids are happy to stay home all day in their PJ's. They have played more computer games than children should be allowed. They are currently on a TV watching spree (which the up side of is my TIVO was almost out of room).

As the sun sets on today, I toast you with my saltine crackers and filtered water. As I giggle at myself---guess I shouldn't have slept nose-to-nose with the sick girl---I've had reminders today that more important things are happening.

Please pray for Coy (see his blog at www.prayforcoy.blogspot.com). He's had a rough day and his oxygen levels are back to almost 100%. There is new infection in the latest blood culture. Please agree with us for his complete and miraculous healing.

Just when you might get it together...

Just when I thought I might be able to get it all together. You know how it is in January catch up laundry, catch up on housework and get some of this Christmas stuff put away. The boys are back in school and I'm ready to spend all day today working on the house. Get the kids in bed last night (Tues.) and Sean & I watch a little TV and start to clean up the kitchen.

That's when the scream came. The piercing wail followed by "MaMa!" For those of you who are mothers, I think you'll know what I mean when I tell you I knew from the moment the cry started that Rebekah had thrown up. I had 3 dishes left to load in the dishwasher and Sean was taking off at a run. I yell, "I'll be right there--she just threw up." He can't understand how I knew. It's a mom thing and something about 'that' cry. It's the throw up cry.

Poor kid had to get a shower while poor daddy had to deal with bed linens. (Please note: Sean can not stand anything involving throwing up. Just a minor whiff can send him racing for fresh air trying not to lose it himself.) So while I scrubbed it out of Rebekah's hair, he put fresh sheets in the crib and set up another set of clean PJ's in case it happened again. Which, of course, it did. I believe she was sick at 10:30pm. 11:15, 11:45 and 1:00am. Then she woke me up at 2:00 and 3:00 and got up at 3:45 ready to have a day. I wrestled with her until 4:30 when she woke her dad up. We both wrestled with her until she finally collapsed at 6am. I slept until the alarm at 7:10 and got up to face my day.

Today I found myself playing the role of Zombie Mom. Just trying to stay awake and do anything that resembled an accomplishment. I was able to grab a couple hour nap with Rebekah in the afternoon which kept me going until bedtime.

HERE'S MY POINT IN TELLING YOU THIS:
But through it all, I decided there isn't room for "poor me" in all of this. My friend Holly has 4 girls all born within 2.5 years. When they had the icky-sicky at their house, she was sick with 3 girls. The laundry that piled up was as tall as the washing machine. I'm sure it took her weeks to dig out of that ordeal. So I'm tired---big deal, get over it. Our new cyber-friends Chris & Ann Marie would give anything for their baby Coy to be well and out of NICU and at home. (While I don't think they'd be thrilled about the ickys, just having Coy at home would make it worth it.) So I threw myself a 20 minute pity party, nobody seemed interested in joining. What can you do but move on?

Rebekah is fine now. Went to the doctor today and it was a virus going around. It comes with either nausea or vomiting or diarrhea accompanied by a major league headache. She's over it and looking good. I'm feeling better after a good night of sleep.

Now all that's left is to pray for my friends. Coy is off his IV and infection free. He's having some breathing issues, so pray his lungs will mature. Holly's hubby is currently deployed and she is doing a marvelous job of being mommy and still heading up her ministry projects. Pray for her strength and wisdom and for her to continue being able to focus on the big picture.

Christmas Break Museum Tour

Well, after our last poorly executed attempt (see 1/31 blog for details), we managed to get TWO museums in this weekend. Went to the Children's Museum and had oodles of fun! We got to see the last Light Show Extravaganza (the reason I wanted to go) and we saw the Making Things exhibit (the reason the kids wanted to go). Nathan drove Rebekah in the car, then Rebekah kicked him out to drive herself.

Andrew made a horse die cut. Rebekah and Nathan had fun on the pulley swings. Then Rebekah discovered the slide and the water table. Hmmm---wonder why her sleeves were so wet?

We also got to go see the astronaut exhibit the day before it left. This was something I really wanted to see. I think the kids enjoyed it as well---especially Mr. Nathan, "Future Astronaut to Mars". Gave us a lot of information if he really decides to pursue this route. The kids' favorite part is always: --Flight Simulator for the Daddy & Andrew kids and ---Flying the rocket for Nathan and Rebekah.

The picture of Andrew & Sean in the simulator isn't the best, but here's the simulator and a little of Nathan & Rebekah flying.

Movie Making Christmas Break

Andrew & Nathan have decided that movie making is the best way to have fun over Christmas break. Andrew made a music video, Nathan was working on a video and now they are Jr. Mythbusters. In the midst of this, they have killed my camera battery 3 times (good thing it's a rechargeable) and have kicked Sean & I off of our own computers.

Above are two candids they got of Rebekah. However, some of their best work is the funny reels and bloopers. I'm trying to put some of the 'best of Andrew & Nathan' here. Enjoy!

Getting Rebekah to squeal is the high point of the boys' day.


Here is the classic Myth Busters Opening Sequence....

Proving how to drink from the same bottle without passing germs. (This is a science show after all.)

Now we're off to commercial break...

Finally--the best blooper. The video is dark and hard to see, but turn up your speakers. The accidental commentary is perfect.

2008 is Going to be Great

Our pastor told us on Sunday that he knows in his spirit that 2008 is going to be great. Amen! From our house to yours, prayers and belief that this new year will be better than any before. Praying for prosperity and health for all of you.

Love, Us