We are much better here in our household. Amy is home (she had a great trip and I am encouraging her to write a review on her blog of the Xanadu musical she saw on Broadway), Nathaniel is now using his stitches as a badge of honor/excuse to try to get everything he wants, and I am headed to the GI Specialist in a few minutes. I should know more later this afternoon. Thanks for all the nice comments and emails.
In the meantime, go check out Aaron Ivey’s pics from Haiti
My time with the children sans Amy was going so well…until Sunday night when it all went downhill fast. I will spare you the details but I have had some health issues over the past week that have messed with my stomach. I have done some bloodwork and tests that show something going on with my liver and my doctor thinks it has to do with leftover gall stones from my gallbaldder removal surgery 11 years ago, yes I said 11 years ago. I had been fine for several days but when I went to bed on Sunday night I had some discomfort and I woke up at midnight in a pretty decent amount of pain. I struggled with the pain until 3:15am when I fell back asleep only to wake up again at 5am with another round of pain. I fell back asleep at 6:15am but had to get the kids off to school at 7am so I slept very little over the course of the night. I stayed in bed with pain most of yesterday and saw my Doctor in the afternoon. He is sending me to a specialist tomorrow but told me to go home and get back in bed. I heeded his instructions and put my oldest daughter, Olivia, in charge of dinner, bedtime routine, and making sure the kids did not kill each other. At this point I had a fever of 103 and had not eaten in 24 hours so needless to say I was not in good shape.
At 7pm I told Olivia to tell the other kids to take a shower and start getting ready for bed. My youngest, Nathaniel, decided he would take the shower request and turn it into a chance to run from Olivia and make her chase him down. I could hear his laughter running from room to room and hear Olivia calmly telling him to go take a shower. I heard a door open and shut and the laughter turned to screaming. Olivia had accidentally slammed Nathaniel’s pinky in the door leading to our garage and Nathaniel was screaming that scream that indicates a real problem. I called them into my room and looked at Nathaniel’s hand to find a good chunk of his pinky was sliced open and bleeding all of over the place. I immediately jumped up and started working on Nathaniel’s pinky while he screamed for his Mommy. I was doing everything in my power at that moment not to pass out from the combination of my own sickness and the fact that blood was everywhere. Our neighbor, Jamie, came over and helped me wrap up his finger and drove us to the Emergency Room. We spent a few hours in the ER and Nathaniel got 6 stitches in that tiny pinky of his. Yesterday was not one of the better days I have ever experienced.
So, today Nathaniel and I are resting together in my bed watching PBS and waiting for Amy to come home and rescue us from ourselves.
Amy is in New York for Mother’s Day so we made her this video last night.
I am in the airport headed home from some meetings in Colorado Springs where I also spent some time with this artist. I land in Nashville this afternoon 40 minutes before Amy’s flight leaves for New York City. Amy is spending Mother’s Day weekend in NYC with her mom and two sisters (the younger sister, Kathy, lives in NYC). That leaves me at home with our 4 kids alone for the next 5 days. Tonight is “Free for All Friday”** which consists of pizza, movies, some PS2, and the freedom for the kids to stay up as late as they can make it. The rest of the weekend/early next week will put my mad parenting and culinary skills on display. If you don’t hear from me by Monday afternoon, please call for help!
**”Free for All Friday” is a weekly ritual in our house at the end of a long school week and NOT something I made up so the kids would think I am way more fun than their Mother.
Amy and I had a date night last night and ate some fantastic Italian food and caught a pretty funny movie (Baby Mama). I realized today, while pondering the good laughs I had at this $9 per ticket movie, that I have not seen a GREAT movie this year. I mean, a movie that just floored me.
So, have I just missed it? Have you seen that GREAT movie in the last 6 months (via the theatre or dvd) that I, and the rest of this readership, just absolutely need to see?
We have a vegetable garden. When I say, “we”, I mostly mean my role in said vegetable garden is that it sits on the property that I own via the nice mortgage company somewhere in California. It’s one of those suburban gardens - you know the 15 foot x 15 foot types that has to avoid being seen from the street so one of those homeowners association company employees does not cite us for being “un-homeowners associationy”. We (there’s that “we” again) grow some tomatoes, peppers, okra, beans, and a few other things in the garden and get the rest of our vegetables from the nice people at the Avalon Acres co-op.
Now, the great thing about our garden is that it’s a yearly gift from my favorite in-laws. Amy’s parents come in every spring and spend several days here but one of those days is devoted to weeding, tilling, and planting our garden. (They do the same for Shaun’s family even though they have secretly confided in me that I am the favorite son-in-law)
So, today is garden day around here and in several weeks the vegetables will start sprouting from the ground and by midsummer we can hardly keep up with the baby tomatoes that will take over.
Does anyone else here plant a little suburban, urban, or rural garden? If so, what are you planting this summer?
The Birthday Tour of 08′ contunues today with the celebration of our youngest, Nathaniel, turning 5! Nathaniel awoke this morning to find a balloon, some presents, scrambled eggs, and the infamous birthday hat all waiting for him at the table.
Nathaniel is our energetic, stealth like child. Don’t play a game of hide and seek with him unless you are prepared to lose handily. If you can’t hear what he is doing for more than a minute or two - you need to check and see what he may be destroying. He runs everywhere he goes but he can stop dead in his tracks and dominate you in a stare off. I have a feeling (based on some pre-k experiences from this year) that this child will be the source of more teacher/parent phone calls and conferences than our other three combined. He is all boy and loves to get messy and play sports. But at the end of the day his favorite place in the world is still in his Mommy’s lap reading a book.
Happy Birthday buddy!
I am in the airport after spending the last couple of days at the Beth Moore event (as the guest of Travis) and now I feel tired. I got good sleep but just listening to her teach makes me tired because she has endless amounts of energy. She is what would happen if the Energizer Bunny got saved, developed a southern accent, studied alot of Greek and Hebrew, and set out to teach thousands of people at a time. Very good stuff.
On a completely different note, I decided to read all the Harry Potter books. My older kids just finished all of them and I chose to follow their lead. It was either Harry Potter or The Shack and I chose Harry. I’ll let you know if I get struck down for my misdeeds. I need to jump on a flight now.
I am in Colorado Springs spending some time with this guy (we spent some time at the Compassion office). He works with this woman and tonight I am hanging with the two of them and several thousand women at this event. I am looking forward to it but I may need to watch some baseball or race my rental car at a nearby stoplight to counteract the lack of testosterone my evening will hold.
I don’t have much time to type but I want to share an article from the Houston Chronicle about my Grandfather - we call him Poppa. Poppa has pastored for over 50 years in the Houston area and has been retired for much of the last 15 years. A year ago he was asked to be the Interim Pastor for a church that was about to close its doors for numerous reasons but primarily because it never changed with the community around it and was now left with just a handful of older members. Poppa has never been one to do anything quietly so he ignored the fact that he was just the “interim” Pastor of the church and forged ahead with a plan to save the church and connect to the community. The Houston Chronicle, one of the nation’s largest papers, is printing this story in the weekend edition. Way to go, Pop!
Click here to read the article about Poppa and his church
**Poppa’s the one on the right. And, my grandfather is over 6 feet tall to give you a frame of reference for the size of the other pastor.
