Hello World

I have thought at least a hundred posts in my head and they have been discarded before my fingers hit the keyboard. I've been feeling very vulnerable and some of the topics for my would be posts were too personal. I kept thinking, well I really don't know if I would want this person finding out I wrote that, or thought that. I've been really praying about family situations that are once again too personal for public display.
Another thing is that Rebecca is now a toddler and walking and getting into everything. She has a co-conspirator in crime too, he sure does egg her on. They get into some rolling wrestling matches and I'm always amazed how she can hold her own against John. All that doesn't exactly allow for uninterrupted thinking and blogging time, but even that might not matter if I didn't want to just log in to Facebook...
Maybe I'm just trying to make up excuses for my laziness and procrastination.
It has been nonstop since we returned from our trip to Canada. We are currently doing a PE program at the Baptist HealthPlex. Cynthia, Jesse and John are rotating between the pool, court and Energym room. I had thought I could walk on the track but I was kicked off because of Rebecca in my sling. When they said no children on the track, I wanted to say, but she's not on the track, she's on me. Oh well! A friend was sweet enough to give up the comforts of indoor walking to walk around the parking lot with me.
Rebecca has her top front tooth coming through, she's now 17 months old and has her third tooth! Rebecca and I stayed up at the church Friday night with the Youth LockIn. Teenagers + coffee + sugar = very little sleep, but I think they had a fun time. We woke up in the morning to find one of the back rooms flooded in the church, not fun.
Being called away, nice chatting with you.

First Tooth

Rebecca has her first tooth! One of her bottom front teeth appeared through the gum on Monday. Exactly 13 months old and she has her first tooth!
We drove to TX Friday and came back Monday night. We sat on I20 in traffic as the bridge across the MS river was closed for over 2 1/2 hours. The children mostly slept through it but we didn't get home until 3:30am, can you say caffeine needed!?
I have a sick child today, stomach virus, and I'm praying it doesn't go through the whole family.

Good News

Loren called me at lunch excited with good news to share. He had a manuscript accepted, with minor revisions, to the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. This is good news as he is working on his application for tenure. It has also been quite a few years since anyone in the Department has had an article published in this journal. I'm so proud of him.

Other good news, I am in the process of transferring my volunteer financial responsibilities. The process is a lot of work and once it is finished I'll breathe a big sigh of relief and look to new horizons.

Rebecca, my little one year old, is holding onto my fingers and taking steps. Oh, she's growing up so fast. I'm beginning to wonder about how many comments I get that she is SO small, I think she's just perfect. Everyone has their opinion.

Yeah!

Only a mom will understand my excitement that my John is potty trained (ing?). I had despaired that he would give up diapers, but really how many college students need diapers? He decided Monday morning and we've only had 2 accidents since then. He tells me every time and I'm just so excited and proud.
Last night we went on a slug hunt, wow, I knew we had a slug problem as my garden was disappearing but I didn't realize how many slugs you could collect. The children and I had cups of bleach and flashlights, John got pretty excited when he found one. The biggest ones were actually near the cat food dishes.
We drove to a breastfeeding support meeting tonight and I drove through some of the storm damage. The children were oohing and wowing over the massive trees still on houses. Old Canton Road is lined with piles of debris.
Rebecca is taking a couple of steps while holding my fingers, can you believe my baby turns one next Saturday? Where did the year go? Oh yeah, I spent most of it travelling in AZ and Eastern Canada.
Next week is our big conference, Breastfeeding: The Gold Standard with Dr Nils Bergmann and Dr Rebecca Saenz. Thursday night they are showing The Business of Being Born
from 10pm to midnight, a $5.00 donation is suggested for the general public, but it is included in registration for conference attendees. On some levels I'll be happy for the conference to be finished, it is a lot of work.

Updates

Life is moving so fast, my children and growing and stretching me in the process too. I think I'm going to really ration the Easter candy because they've all been a bit irritable lately.
Cynthia has 2 more loose teeth on the bottom, number 5 and 6 that have been loose so far. I'm concerned about the spacing of her bottom teeth, there just doesn't seem to be room for them all and they are crowded. The Dentist wasn't so concerned though.
Jesse has a loose tooth also, his First and he's only 5. We can already see the tooth coming in behind his baby tooth. He's also going through a growth spurt and seems to be a bit clumsy. It could be that he is just being more daring and adventurous. I'm trying not to smother him. He recently got his training wheels off his bike and he and Cynthia are pedalling their bikes all over the back yard.
John keeps reminding us that he is 3. We were memorizing a Bible verse in John 4 and he would stop us every time and say, "NO, I'm THREE" We are still waiting on insurance for his teeth, we are looking at about $3000.00 in dental work on his teeth. Don't ask me how I feel about that, mommy guilt supreme! John is in a really nice cuddle stage right now.
Rebecca is now 11 months old, she is a FAST crawler. She pulls up and then will let go and can stand alone by herself. She has a really sweet personality and is such a joy. My sweet home birthed baby. She is working on her first teeth now too.
Can you tell I'm a bit obsessed with teeth in this post? I went to the dentist on Tuesday and was supposed to get my crown. I say supposed to because the crown didn't fit. You see I wasn't able to keep the impression in for the required 4 minutes, I only managed 2 before I majorily gagged in the garbage can. I know, too much information. Soooo, I had to redo the impression. I used labor coping skills to get me through, plus they had me leaning forward and I had to keep a foot raised. Do you know how hard it is to concentrate on breathing, with a nasty tasting foreign object in your mouth while keeping your foot raised and not swallowing?
I was such a the thoughtful wife and made Loren an appointment right after mine at the dentist, share the joy right? He had 2 fillings, and they didn't even have to numb him. This in itself is a miracle, he has needed from 3 to 7 shots to be numb enough!
My home is half a mess, the living room is presentable, the kitchen table has school papers all over it and I have a big stack of drying dishes. The Pastor and his wife will be coming over for Dinner tomorrow night, and I'm trying not to stress. We've also received a Sunday lunch invitation, for ALL 6 of us. She made sure we knew it was for the whole family. I really love my new church family. I feel so blessed that God has placed us at Daniel Memorial. You can check out the website if you want, www.danielbaptist.org I'm doing updates on their site now. It was very lonely with a lot of outdated information. We have some plans and I'm excited about the possibilities.
Loren is away tonight at class,I need to have a better attitude about him doing what he feels God wanting him to do. After all, my mom managed all 4 of us every night alone because my Dad was milking cows at the farm or away preaching.

Possibilities Are Exciting

We joined Daniel Memorial Baptist Church yesterday. The children (and us) have been so excited and felt so welcome at this church. We feel that this is the church God has a place for us to minister in and reach out to our neighborhood with. We have met a few times with the Pastor, and the possibilities for ministry are exciting.
I know of at least two other home schooling families attending the church. We also saw more young families at church yesterday. We are expecting big things from God!

I am functioning on limited sleep today. Rebecca had a rough night with gas, she got a few too many new foods at the Love and Laughter Banquet last night. The only position she wasn't screaming in was with me standing and holding her close with my hand pressed on her stomach. You can only stand for so many hours! I treated her for thrush just in case since we have just finished antibiotics for her ear infection.

We are enjoying a quiet evening while our oldest 2 are on a Children's Night Out with the church.

One year ago..

One year ago today we made a hospital stay with John, viral croup. Very scary experience I don't want to repeat. We had tried our usual hot steamy shower and it wasn't working. His whole chest looked like it was about to cave in from his desperate intake for air. His little feet were blue when we got him to the hospital, and it is only 5-7 minutes down the road. It was the hardest thing to watch the nurses working on him. The oxygen mask made him look so tiny, he was just 25 months at the time, and then they wanted vein access so they put in an IV.
A lot of the past has been relived today as my sister took my niece, who is 15 months, into the ER. Her fever went up and when I called to check on Lily I could her the barking cough. I asked if they were taking her in because she sounded just like John did a year ago. I've been praying for the past few hours waiting to hear news. Of course these things happen at inconvenient times. My sister is supposed to be in another hospital 2 hours away tomorrow morning at 6:30am for dental surgery on her oldest daughter, Hannah.
They live in Canada, and have been waiting since October for this appointment.
Okay, the spell check isn't working, forgive the typos please.

I'm back

I have been out of email contact for almost 2 months and haven't felt like I've had the energy to much past the basics since arriving back home.
The children and I drove almost 2200 miles in 5 days, Jackson, MS to Bathurst, NB Canada. Our big road adventure! I have so many pictures and thoughts I want to get written but I'm also trying to limit my online time. We'll see how things go once I get caught up, (I will get caught up right?) and I finally get the cat urine smell out of the house. Can you believe the cat got locked in the house when Loren flew out? Thankfully we have good neighbors (with a key) who take good care of our house and pets.
Cynthia lost her 2 front teeth, Rebecca is crawling and pulling up, she is getting quite vocal too. Jesse is reminding me more of Loren in his mannerisms, and John is 3 today, we are having some potty training issues, to say the least!

Blogging Vacation?

My husband has joined the world of blogging, you can read about his adventures here. I'm sure his posts will be more organized than mine!

I've taken a week off from blogging. It has definitely been an interesting week. Recovering from illness, my Dad being admitted to the hospital in Canada, getting bitten by a spider. First time for everything, I'm just very thankful it was not a brown recluse.

My parrot and cat sitting job has come to an end. I feel so free but yet I miss the little screecher on some level. No, I really don't want another bird, but BooBoo had just let me pet his head for the first time.

Our cat family that adopted us is eating us out of house and home, anyone want a cute little fluffy kitten?

We have 3 black ones, 1 black with white feet and one grey one left. Anyone? No, I'm not desperate or above begging, haha.

The children went canoeing with Loren 2 weekends ago, they had so much fun with Daddy, and were pretty proud of their alligator spotting's.

Rebecca is sitting up and barely falls anymore, she is pushing up more on her hands and can turn in a circle while one her tummy. Loren is positive she said "DaDa" last night.

Rebecca

Rebecca is sitting unassisted, well she is still a bit wobbly but it is amazing how long she will sit up. She is also trying to go places when you lay her down, she rolls over and then starts turning in circles. So cute. Wow, my little girl is growing up, 6 months already.

tree wins another battle

Well, should I say that the tree wins another round in escaping being cut down. Humberto has delayed the scheduled removal. I prayed that all branches would remain in their proper places as the storm swept through Jackson, thankfully not much wind but a lot of rain.
We are headed to the Dr this afternoon, John has a rash all over his abdomen and started running a fever about 30 minutes before the rash appeared. It always amazes me how fast they can go from being 'a little warm' to 'burning up'. He slept in my arms for about 30 minutes and just now woke up wanting to watch a movie. It is now baby sister's turn to have mommy's attention. She's hungry.
Actually Miss. Rebecca is into rolling over. Two days ago she really started rolling over from her back to her stomach, now every time you put her down she thinks she needs to flip over. She's getting so big, and she's just so cute ;-)