Video and prayer request

I have mentioned several times that my Dad is in Afghanistan at FOB Bostick. I have asked for prayers and that is about where it has stopped simply because I'm not sure what is safe to share on the web and what is not. But, I am bringing it back front and center because things are getting really hot over there right now. Please pray not only for my Dad's safety, but all the soldiers who are doing a job not easily done. My Dad emailed this video. These are the guys that bring the soldiers from the field to the FST team where the medical team waits for them. The base has heard gun fire the whole time and have been on alerts but was hit this week with a mortar. Please pray for the safety of our guys as they fight against evil itself. My dad has asked that we pray for snow so that the evil is driven into their caves for the winter. I ask you to join me in that prayer. I will also ask that you pray for these medical workers as they strive to save all that pass through their doors and yet lose some. Not an easy thing and they are surrounded with it day and night. It is really easy to get caught up in life right here and forget about the guys in the desert so far from home. Please remember them right now!

Parenting is Tough Stuff!

It has been a long while since I've updated about the kids, especially Josh and the choices we are making about little man. We sat down with all the team that evaluated Josh through the local school and they were thinking exactly what we have been. That he is no longer fitting the Autism category, but that he does have significant delays and Sensory issues. The problem with not having a specific diagnosis is that it makes it hard to have a specific plan for him. There are no clear cut answers as to what will help and what will hinder. We all agree that he has very big social deficits and so we have decided to put him into the Special Needs Preschool program here in our local school system. Since we made it, I have been up many nights analyzing that decision. Oh, how I wish each child came with a detailed instruction book. On October 30, do this. I would feel so much better if I wasn't the one making decisions that will effect my child for life. You see, in the past few weeks, we moved Josh into the same room with Sam and Michael. Since we did that, he has really become one of the big boy. He sees himself as one of the guys and they have brought him into their very close bonds. It has been really great for me to watch as they all have embraced each other. Now we are going to send Josh away for 4 hours 4 days a week while the 2 big guys stay here together. I just hope that they don't lose these new relationships. The whole reason we decided to send him into the Preschool setting is because of the social inability to interact with his peers. It seems that that has begun here at home and I really hate to break that doing the thing that we had hoped would really help. The other thing that makes me nervous is that we are throwing him into this pit of germs at what seems to be the peek of Swine Flu season. I am terrified that he will get it and that he will bring it back into the house and infect everyone else as well. He has never been in Daycare or other group settings except church and I feel like we are just painting a target on our little man's head. We went to meet his teachers this week and they are truly sweet ladies. I really think he can thrive there. He is supposed to start on Monday. I spoke with the school Psychologist this afternoon and shared with her all my concerns. She said that she trusts our judgment and that if the class isn't the set up for him and we see it having detrimental effects on the relationships he has finally made here at home, we can stop and reevaluate what is the best choice, we do have other options. Please pray that we would have wisdom in our decisions here. Parenting is so tough! Then, yesterday, Sam woke up taking really deep breaths over and over again. I was concerned because I feel the need to do that when my asthma acts up. I asked him if he was feeling short of breath. He said no, he just felt like taking a deep breath. Another decision. Sam has always had issues with tics. When he was 3.5, he started with a blinking tic. It went away on it's own a few months later. A couple of months after that, he started with a tic where he opened his mouth really big at odd times, sometimes repeatedly. That resolved on its own as well. After a short time, he had one in which he would kinda hum periodically, especially when he was trying to talk to us, but at other times as well. That one went away and then he got one where he'd stick out his tongue really far. Again, it went away, are you seeing a pattern? They have always cleared up within a month or so, sometimes a bit longer. Now, it seems, he has another. He does it often, even while sitting and seems to be fine otherwise. I watched while he slept last night and there are no other signs of asthma issues at all. So, we are chalking it up to another tic. And, it seems, we might need to get this checked out eventually. Why, oh why, can't parenting just be easy? It sure seemed easy before I was one!

Fall fun!

There has been so much that I need to catch up on, like Sam's end of season soccer party and his first ever trophy! I will, but I need to get today done first and then I'll go back. We have been stuck inside for going on two weeks with this HFM and we have been going stir crazy. We thought we were in the clear yesterday. We went out for dinner in celebration. We went to Red Lobster and when we got settled at the table, we prayed together the way we always do. The table next to us saw this and when we were done, they said that they were believers as well. We talked about Christ for a few minutes and churches. We discovered that we attend the church that they attended when they lived close by. They had to move and found a church closer to them, but it was fun to find links that tie us together. It is like meeting family you didn't know you had. We ordered and enjoyed our meal and our time together outside the house. Sarah and Abby ate themselves silly on Marvin's all you can eat shrimp. When we were all done, our waitress came over, boxed up our leftovers and told us to have a wonderful night and that our check was all taken care of. We were kind of shocked, and asked who had done it. The people that we had talked to earlier in the evening had. What a blessing. It was such a great feeling, that we can't wait to pay it forward the next time we are out! I'll tell you all about it when it happens! Then, we got home for bathtime. I had the HFM kids and when I was washing Josh I found new bumps. MAN, I hope that we didn't spread this thing. The new find kept us from church this morning. I was bummed. Marvin was on duty, so one of us could not take the healthy kids either. They were bummed. It is getting harder because everyone is feeling better, so it is hard for them to understand that Josh could still be contagious. They miss their friends. I did sneak them to our local Fred Mejer so that we could get some pumpkins to decorate. We put Josh in the back of the double stroller, so that hopefully he wouldn't infect anyone. The pumpkin painting and carving took up the whole afternoon. They LOVED it!

Sarah means business!

Abby thinks this is fun!

Sam- it really is so sad that he is so serious all the time!

kids hard at work!

Michael man and his black masterpiece

Josh is serious about his art

Sarah painted that same red spot for at least 30 minutes!

The carving pumpkin

Sam was all about digging out the pumpkin guts!

See how good he did?

Three boys with their goofy pumpkin

Sarah has got a terrible fear of odd faces(serious, is there a name for that phobia?)

Five little pumpkins all in a row!

Result of those pumpkins!

"Just a little mess." That was a quote by Michael. ;)

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Sorry, had to get that out! I feel better now! We had less than a week off of soccer when Sarah got really fussy. Her eyes got all glassy, which usually means a fever will follow. Only, none did. I thought it strange, but I was glad. Then I found a strange sore on her tongue. Looking closer, I saw several sores in the same area, on her lips and inside her cheeks, and a few dots on the outside of her mouth. I had a cold sore at the time and thought I had passed them on to her. I remembered my first time getting them and it was really bad, but not on my tongue. When I was looking up if it was possible to get cold sores on your tongue, I came across a picture of Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. It looked just like Sarah's mouth. There were no sores on her hands or feet, but I figured it was coming. Sure enough, she woke up with blisters on her hands and bottom the next morning. Other than not being able to eat ketchup, which is Sarah's most favorite food EVER, she really didn't act very sick. We just had to wait it out and let the blisters heal and pray that we don't have an outbreak on our hands. With 5 kids, a simple bug can take us out for weeks! After 2 days went by, I started to hope that maybe this was stopped in it's tracks. I looked all the kids over every morning and night. Then, on day 3, I found the blisters on Abby. Hers were mostly in her mouth. If I hadn't been looking for it, I most likely would have never known they were there. That makes me relieved. Hopefully whoever brought their infected child into contact with mine did not know their child was sick. I resigned myself to the knowledge that we had an extra 2 days of house arrest and hoped it would end there. However, 2 days later, there was no mistaking that Josh had gotten it, and much worse than the girls had it. Poor guy was in bad shape! His mouth was so bad, he drooled everywhere for 2 days and needed a lot more meds to get him through. I followed him around with Lysol. Poor guy. I kept the kids separated for bath times and it was funny to watch the sick bath get more and more filled up. The first night Sarah was all alone in the bath for the first time in her life. She did not like it at all! Then Abby joined her. Then Josh joined. It started getting pretty crowded in there! I hate to write this down, because Josh is still contagious, which means Michael and Sam are still at risk, but I think we are finally on the downhill path now! On my calculations, we should be done with being fully contagious on Sunday. We are all going stir crazy! Add to this sickness a whole lot of working hours for Marvin and a whole lot of rain keeping us inside and what you get is just not very pretty! We've done a lot of crafts though, so that is fun. Maybe, just maybe, the sun will come out by the time that we can come out!!!! In other news, I have decided to be an independent representative for a company called Demarle! I'll write more about that another time, but in the meantime, you can check out my website here! I better go do some more disinfecting!

Corn Maze

We live less than a mile away from a farm in what used to be a rural area but it now just outside of town. We pass the cornfield and cows every time we go to town and each and every single time, we moo on the way by. They make a corn maze during the fall each year. We saw it last year as we were looking for our house, but were too busy to even think about taking our crew through it. We had thought we lost the chance to go because it has become very cold and wet here. The sun came out today though and Marvin was home. We could not think of anything better to do than pay to get lost in a cornfield! The boys had a BLAST!

This was my view for most of the journey!

Our goal was to find each of six punch stations and punch our card with each unique shape

Sarah wants her card punched too!

The boys taking a quick break to look at some cow poop. Such boys!

We could hear the cows the whole time we were in the corn. When we came around the corner and saw them through this little path, the girls and Josh were SO excited!

It got a little bit tough there at the end. We were hungry, getting cold, and my feet were killing me(those darn boots!). But we found the last punch station(possibly with the help of our camera phone and the map found at punch station 3...) and were so excited to find our way to the exit sign.

Corn on the cob is Sarah's most favorite thing in the world. Seriously, the girl can put away 3 full ears at one sitting and still want more. The whole time we were walking through the maze, she kept pointing and yelling "CORN!!!!!!" It was really cute at first, but 2 miles into the maze, it was getting just a little bit old! I am so excited to share these things as our children are getting old enough to enjoy them. It is so nice to be able to have fun with my family instead of just bringing them along while I have fun!

At Least I Got Some Boots Out of the Day!

Man, has today ever been a mix of really really good and really really bad! It started out so well. Today, a sweet sweet lady offered to take my children so that I could have a day to get done anything I wanted to do. I dropped the kids off ad got into my van and just breathed. No crying. No screaming. No ever wonderful spitting "rap". Just a cleansing breath!!!!! I made my way to the hair salon and got a hair cut. A real haircut! Not just a quick Walmart trim!!! I will post pictures, but after my evening of cheering on my firstborn at a really cold, wet soccer game, it is not quite as nice as when I left the salon. To quote my wonderfully loving sons tonight, "Why do you have crazy hair?" After that, I wasn't so excited to document this big change. Anyway, after my haircut, I went on the hunt for boots. I've heard that boots are in this autumn. I'm not much on fashion...no, really, it is true;)... but I do have a thing for boots. Not the tall, black, high heeled, fashion kind. I'm talking the cowboy kind. I was overjoyed to know that I might just be able to pull off some cowboy boots in the name of fashion! I was on a mission. One that I was very proud to have accomplished! After my day of breathing, heavenly salon trip, and successful shopping trip I stopped to pick up some groceries. My plan was to drop off the groceries and take Harley for a good long walk. Since it has been so cold and rainy, we haven't gone on a real walk for a couple of days. I walked into the house on top of the world. It certainly came crashing down quickly! As soon as I walked in, I knew something was terribly wrong. I looked down at my feet(remember the ones that I was so happy to find new boots for) and saw a lot of dust and pieces of door frame. I was hoping it had just materialized on our floor. Big messes tend to do that in our house quite often. Sadly, this was not one of those times. Seems Harley REALLY wanted to do a little remodeling for us and apparently wanted to start with the door frame. NICE! I put the dog outside so that I would not beat him with chunks of door frame while I cleaned up the mess. We then went to Petsmart ASAP to get a nice kennel to put in the garage for our handyman dog before he decides to take out a wall. Before anyone thinks badly about my caging our dog, it is one of the best rooms in the house! I only wish that someone would put me in there periodically and we are only gone for very short period of time. He got to try it out tonight during Michael's soccer game. It was cold and wet outside. Let me tell you, these Seattle soccer coaches and parents are devoted to this soccer stuff. I'm just not sure if it is worth sitting in the freezing rain to watch a bunch of 7 year olds chase a soccer ball from one end of the field to the other in one big herd. I mean, for goodness sakes, we don't even keep score, is it really necessary to play games in the freezing rain? Apparently, it is. We bundled up and cheered because I am devoted to my son, even if I am not so devoted to soccer. Thankfully, there was a break in the rain for most of the game. I'm still cold. Boy, does South Carolina weather sound good right about now!!! I am not looking forward to the Washington winter after this preview of coming attractions. Gone are the days of wishing for air conditioning. Here are the days of heaters and winter coats! But, hey, at least I got a great pair of boots!

Oh So Much!

Goodness, have we ever been busy! Okay, that is a CRAZY understatement. Where have we been. One word...SOCCER! We have almost literally moved to our local soccer field. We have 4 games each week. Thankfully, we are more than half way done for this year! School is going well, we are in a good rut and are still very much enjoying it. Our regular activities keep us hopping all week long, which keeps us out of trouble! We got a dog last week! I know, I said we would not get another one for a long time. It has been a year and we have discovered we are truly a dog family. It was sad to us that the girls were terrified of dogs simply because they have not been around one. So, we've been looking for just the right dog. And we refuse to pay for a dog(besides an adoption fee), so that limits our choices. We had asked about several dogs that we found on Craig's List, but just weren't feeling right about any of them. Then, we saw an ad about a 2 year old German Shepherd/Border Collie mix. There was very little information about him other than that he was a good dog because of circumstances that had led him to his temporary home. But, there were some pictures and he was just smiling at me through the computer screen. It worked out that we were able to go see him the next day. Five minutes after we met him, we knew he was ours! His name is Harley and he is such a good dog. He poops in our house every time we leave him alone(which is not for long periods of time, maybe 2 hours tops). He does not when we bring him with us and he does it no matter how long he is outside before we go. If you have any ideas on how to fix this, let me know! Right now, we are trying to gate him only in the middle floor of the house which is 100% hardwood. We'll see if we can break this habit. Other than that, we are loving him!