The Puddles

Ainsley is still sick.  At least the fever stays down with medicine.  But now she has developed this rash on her forehead.  Like a sunburn on her forehead.  When I called my mom for a diagnosis, the rash was contained on her head.  Within 20 minutes the rash had spread to the underside of her chin and her chest.  We sure do know how to create some weird ones in this house.  We’ll see how it is in the morning, but Ainsley may have won a trip to the doctor’s office.  Fevers we can handle, but bizarre rashes that I know nothing about make me nervous.   I only like rashes that have names.  The rashes of unknown origins weird me out.  We’ll see how it is in the morning.  Hopefully it will be gone and we can go back to just dealing with a four year old with a fever.  I like that much better.

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Chris and I have been married for 14 years.  That’s 3 children, 7 moves, a number of job titles (from Tech guy to Pastor), 2 heart surgeries, multiple crisisses, and uncountable joys later . . . life could not be better.  We are spending the day tending to a sick child, doing laundry, getting ready for a council meeting, and leaving for church camp.  We will celebrate at some point (maybe at year 15).  But that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the years that we have been together or the joy of today.  We do. Half of our anniversaries have been spent with Chris at camp or on a mission trip.  It wouldn’t be normal if he was here!  I think the kids and I will pull out the old video tonight and watch it while the kids ask five million questions.  It will be a riot!

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“I like that washcloth.  It is soaky.” says Ainsley about the washcloth that we are using to try to bring down her 103 fever.

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A crown on my tooth fell off in church. The sadness was not only because I was going to miss out on the ice cream social after church, but also because I would have to visit the dentist again.  A dread going to the dentist.  At least this dentist knows that I don’t like going and he is nice to me.  Thank goodness.  Unfortunately my previous dentist (who was the only other dentist who was ever nice to me) retired.  Darn.

Three hours later in the dentist chair and I have a new temporary crown while I wait for a new one.  I always go in for my regular cleaning, but anything else frightens me.  Of course, it could also be because he told me that I have around $4000 worth of crowns and fillings that need to happen in my mouth.  You know it is bad when they start talking about payment plans and a special credit card for medical purposes.  But today the dentist told me that he may not be able to save my tooth under the crown . . . that has scared me into the dentist chair.  Of course, I am a typical mommy who thinks that spending that kind of money on myself is wasteful when she has children to take care of.  But Chris prefers me with teeth. So that solves my dilemma! I guess I will get to know the staff at my dentist office rather well in the next few months.

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We had a lockin last night at church for kindergarten on up.  22 kids came.  Yes. 22.  It was awesome!!!!  The kids had fun.  The adults had fun.  The world outside of the four walls of the church was left behind for a few hours while we played. and played. and played.  The scavenger hunt around church was by far my favorite game (Ben and Madie agreed!)

This event was a trial run for many of the kids who are going to camp in a week.  No one went home.  Everyone slept over.  Pastor (aka Daddy) came and did the Bible study at the end of the evening.  It all ended with the entire group singing “Sanctuary” with Pastor.  That is a good night.

The end result . . . I am tired.  Exhausted.  Madie, Ben and I came home to an Ainsley who would not talk to me.  She was mad at me for not coming home last night.  She said she came to our bed this morning to snuggle and I wasn’t there.  Sorry Ainsley! It took a good hour for her to not be angry with me anymore.  As soon as my behind hit the couch, I couldn’t get back up.  All three puddles were invited over to someone’s house.  I packed them up, took them over, came home to take a shower, and it was time . . . to meet them at the pool.  At least we had fun again. But only the sun was powering my moves today.  Now I’ve hit a huge wall.  I told Chris that the entire crew is going to bed early and that includes me.  I could fall asleep in my chair right now.  Better get up before that happens.  I must at least feed them before I fall asleep.

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We get to go to Nebraska.  It only took weeks of phone calls and emails and working through the various levels of church red tape to get permission to go visit our friends in Geneva.  The decision from the synod was so uncertain that we began to make other arrangements for an alternative vacation and told the kids that we probably would not go (that was a bad day at the Lake house)!  Most pastors do not ask permission before they visit their previous parish, but they still don’t have a pastor yet and we wanted to make sure that we were not visiting in the midst of them calling their new pastor.  That would not be cool and we are NOT that kind of people!  We truly believe in “shaking the dirt off your sandals” principal when leaving a church, but we do still have friends and family (the best kind of family – not blood related) there.  When we left Geneva it was hard, I think that I was pretty much in a full sprint to get out of there.  I am looking forward to the visit with friends, but I think that the kids will get the most from the trip.  They have had the hardest time with this transition especially Madie.  She has been planning this trip for the longest time.  She wants to visit everything and she’s made a list.  Donuts at Jill’s.  Shopping at the calculator store (Hilty’s). Swimming at the pool. Playing at the park.  And visiting with her friends. Only in the last nine months have they stopped comparing everything in Conroe to Geneva.  It still crops up from time to time, but it is slowly going away.  They need this trip to move on.  To go back and not sleep in our old house or swing in the backyard, or go to church will be hard but good for them.

So . . . Nebraska here we come!! (And apparently just in time because Ben is struggling between his Nebraska roots and the Texas brainwashing.  The next thing you know, Ben will have a bumper sticker on his bike “I wasn’t born in Texas. But I got here as fast as I could.”  No kidding.  There is such a bumper sticker.)  The vacation count down has begun!

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Madie and I were discussing her choice in clothes this morning when an exacerbated Madie says,”Mom.  You just don’t understand me.”

Wow.  At 8 years old. I have a feeling that the next 10 years are going to be long.

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photo taken by Grandma Lake

We are slow moving this morning.  The kids didn’t wake up until 8:30am.  And when I say “wake up”, they really just came and crawled into bed with us this morning and slept some more.  Just fine by me!  It lets me sleep some more too.  A midnight return from yesterday’s festivities doesn’t help, but we all enjoyed ourselves in Brenham with the Lake grandparents.  There was a new slip-n-slide for the kids to play on (with three lanes). And I am pretty sure Madie thinks that Papa and Grandma bought this house for the hill in the backyard for her to have a slip-n-slide.  Even Chris started to worry that the kids (especially Ben) was going to crash into the fence at some point.  They (really just Ben) was building up some great speed sliding down that hill.  It’s a good thing it doesn’t snow enough for sledding or Papa and Grandma would need to take the fence out for safety purposes.

After finally going to bed at 4:30am from my trip to the grocery store Saturday night/Sunday morning, I was grateful to get some extra sleep this morning.  We are on our way to the other grandparents this morning. I promised myself we would get home before midnight!!  I am getting too old to keep up these late nights.  Plus, it was a work of perseverance that kept Chris and I awake enough to drive home last night without harming ourselves or anyone else.  I can’t do that again.

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I am finally finished.  I have spent the day working.  After about 2 hours of computer issues, I finally got started.  And 12 hours later I finished.  Give or take a few moments here and there to take care of the children, a bulk of that time was spent with my behind in a chair.  I am rewarding myself by dropping the mail off at the post office and going to the grocery store at 1:00am.  We need food in the house.  The fridge is empty except for a little milk.  I am off to fill up the fridge and pantry!  And then finally to bed.  I am already looking forward to it.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZoXaN75j0

Boy.  I’ve caused more problems in my little world with that title.  I blame my brother-in-law because he videotaped Ben and put it on Youtube.  But honestly . . . only Debra is the Aggie.  The blame should be shared. So. . . I blame myself. I should have trained Ben better.  I’ll work on it.  Ben will be bleed Husker Red by the end of the summer.  But honestly, I’ve got an uphill battle ahead of me.

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