The Puddles

“Madie took the last fudgy bar, but I accept her apology,” says Ainsley.  Not sure why Madie felt the need to apologize, but Ainsley was ok with it in the end.

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We are so excited about tomorrow.  Madie comes  home.  I don’t know who is more excited. Me or the other two in the house.  There have been actual tears for the last two mornings because Madie wasn’t here. And by the way . . . they came from Ben.  He may give the quickest hugs on record but secretly he loves to love.

I am sure that Madie will not be overly thrilled to come home to our boring abode but she will get excited again once she realizes that we are leaving for Nebraska on Monday.  Way cool!  We are all excited.  We are excited about getting to see old friends and a bonus will be getting out of Conroe and the great state of Texas for awhile.  The borders of this state have kept me in for two years and it will finally release me on Monday! Yea!

Chris and Julie have done an awesome job posting wonderful pictures from camp.  I was asking too many questions from Chris tonight about how Madie was doing.  I told him that she looked troubled in a few of the photos.  He told me he wouldn’t put up any more pictures if I continued to read into them like that.  Whew! That was close.  I would have been devastated if he took pictures away.  Seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces in the pictures has me geared up to have another church garage sale in the spring.  We have to earn more money again to send everybody next year.  There are already five kids who didn’t get to go this year and who have said that they want to go next year.  That is really cool.  Chris will be excited for me to part with more of our stuff (he says we didn’t part with nearly enough).  Maybe we’ll have some baby items to sell.  My youngest did just turn five this week!!!  I can’t hang on to this stuff forever!

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Chris’ video is awesome!  He posted it on his blog.  I am so happy to have my husband there with Madie. Especially when he does things like this!!  The photos were taken by Julie Weeks.  Thank goodness for both of their talents! I am almost feel like I’m there!

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Look at that view! What an awesome place to be for a whole week!

Her bed is all made and ready.

Look at all of the blue TOL shirts. There are 17 at camp this week. She'll have friends every where!

Waiting on the hayride to get to the cabin.

Finally we made it on the tractor. She is happy!

Her TOL cabin mates: Madie, Bethany, Yuliana, Amberly

After waiting for 1/2 hour for the hayride, it broke down. Shoot!

Madie is in one of the new cabins. Look how nice they are!!

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Day one with Madie at camp as been a rather laid back kind of day.  I let the other two kids play, play, play. No chores, too many snacks, let Ainsley play with makeup kind of day.  The house has yet to recover from the birthday party or today’s fun day.  I have to clean up tonight because Gordon’s coming in the morning and the poor boy should have at least a picked up house to play in.

We tried to have movie night tonight but nothing seemed to be going our way.  I couldn’t find the movie they wanted to watch. Then the movie that they did pick was so scratched up that we couldn’t see the picture but were able to listen to all of the words (weird). So . . . we just had to call it a night and go to bed.  This upset Ainsley who went to bed crying.  Then she cried so hard that her cough acted up which in turn caused her to throw up.  Poor thing. She didn’t make it to the trash can which upset her even more.  “I hate vomit on my clothes!  I don’t want to go to sleep on throw up, Mommy!”  Poor thing.  This got her so worked up that she threw up again.

So . . . her vomit covered clothes and bed covers are in the wash and she is fast asleep in the extra bed in Ben’s room.  So it’s off to bed for everyone because 6:30am comes awfully quick.  And I would like to have a least one cup of coffee on board before Gordon’s arrives.

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“Listen, Ainsley.  It sounds different now that Madie isn’t in the car.  It’s . . . quiet.”  says Ben to his sister Ainsley as we drive out of camp where we left an upset Madie behind for an entire week of camp.

I am sure that Madie’s tears were just for my benefit and she’s settled into camp nicely.  Either way . . . Ben and Ainsley enjoyed each other the entire trip home without any arguments! Sounds like the beginning of a great week.

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“It was perfect! It was just want I wanted!” said Ainsley in regards to her fifth birthday party tonight.

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Ben has possible strep throat and Madie has microplasma (something like that.  some bacterial infection. same as Ben and I had last week.) So they both got antibiotics.  We’ll find out Monday whether it is actual strep with Ben. The rapid strep came up “maybe”.  According to the doctor, some of the nurses swear there was a line on the test while she couldn’t see one.  To be safe, the doctor is giving Ben medicine anyway.  Hopefully the poor boy will feel better soon.  We’ve been to the pharmacy to pick up meds, to the regular store to get Gatorade and disinfectant, and now we are home getting all of the sick ones tucked into bed.  Now we must pray that the illnesses stop and Madie doesn’t develop the Ben illness while at camp!

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“Mom, will you tell the room to stop moving up and down?” asks Ben.

I turn off the lights. “Is that better?”

“No.  The room is now going wibber-wobber. It’s probably because I drank orange juice.” declares Ben.

Or could it be the 102 fever that he is suffering from?  Poor guy.

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Ben is now sick. The problem is that we were supposed to go Texas Children’s Hospital to run tests on his kidneys today.  Poor kid.  He’s running a 103 fever.  He crawled into bed around 4am.  Ainsley came around 5.  Good thing Chris is at camp. We had plenty of room in the bed.  No one feels their best.  I just hope Madie doesn’t get it.  She is suppose to go to camp on Sunday.  Ainsley’s birthday party is Saturday.  The timing of all of this stinks.  I just need everyone feeling better, so that life can return to normal.  I hope it happens soon.  Oh . . . and I hope that I don’t get it.  Cross my fingers. Throw salt over my shoulder.  Where is my lucky rabbit’s foot?!  I need all of the good luck that I can get.

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