The Puddles

This was a wild night for Boy Scouts.  The kids got to drink hot chocolate, hear a story, get candy, and received their cars for the pinewood derby.  Even the girls got some hot chocolate!

Madie was able to participate in the Wilkinson Honor Choir.  She really enjoyed doing this and had a good time.  They had to meet every Tuesday after school but she learned a lot about singing as a group!

This is the first year that both of my girls went selling! Don’t they look great!  And so enthusiastic!  This is the best part of the entire cookie selling process . . . right before we sell a single box of cookies!

you get an entire lane all to yourself!  Our Girl Scout troop went shopping for our Campout.  It only took a little bit but was a lot of fun!!!

There is only one time that I have seen Girl Scouts run smoothly and efficiently.  Girl Scout Cookie Load Day. This large scale adventure is a sight to behold.

My poor house has gone under a major reconstruction.  We had put off the repairs long enough, but they had to happen.  God truly blessed our week of home repairs!  The weather was lovely and cool.  And He sent many hands to help with this huge undertaking.  We certainly could not have afforded to have paid anyone to do it.  But many came and helped to repair the rot and put the Hardiplank up.  It is a pale yellow color right now (that’s the color of the primer on the boards), but it will soon return to its original gray color.  My poor husband is tired.  I’m tired (and I didn’t even do any of it). I’m glad the project will be finished soon.  Chris just has to put the trim work up and then it will be done. 

It is not a very Texan thing to do. But we love to make May Day baskets and share them with our friends.  We learned to do it in Ohio and Nebraska.  We really enjoyed ourselves making them and exchanging them there. The kids would make them in school and in church.  And everyone would trade!

But here we tend to be the only ones! So since May Day is on a Sunday, we made enough baskets to share with everyone at church.  The kids all enjoyed making them and picking out the goodies to go in them.  Dad insisted on tasting every batch.  It was great and we can’t wait to share with everyone tomorrow.

She got an ambulance ride yesterday which Ben has never really had (well maybe one short trip when he was two and we got scared after his first heart surgery. But he was good before they closed the back of the ambulance).  The end result of yesterday’s adventures is that Madie has a really good bladder and kidney infection.  But that was not determined until we went to two emergency room and had an ambulance ride.

Yesterday afternoon Madie started complaining of stomach pains.  She had them earlier that day (around 1am) but after several hours they had resolved themselves.  The pain went from uncomfortable, to vomiting, to screaming in pain especially when Chris pressed on her belly.  Of course, the doctor’s office was closed. So I dropped the kids off at the neighbor’s house and drove Madie to the stand alone Memorial Herman emergency center.  The doctor there suspected appendicitis because her belly pain just happened to be located over that area of her body.  So he calls down to the Memorial Herman Children’s Hospital in the Medical Center and they determine to have Madie go down there for better testing. So an ambulance ride later brought us to the second hospital.  Uncle Dave was kind enough to meet us there and entertain us for the next several hours while a series of doctors (medical doctors, residents, “bosses”, surgeons, and nurses) all came and poked her trying to determine what was wrong.  After a urinalysis and an ultrasound (where Madie got to see her kidneys and bladder), it was determined that she had a bladder and kidney infection.  They gave her some omnicept, which she didn’t throw up, so we went home. Hallelujah!

It was a long day and a long journey. Madie has an experience that she will never forget and some medicine to make her feel better.  I am glad.  I hate to see her hurting so badly.  Dad even joined us in the end of the journey to ask his hundred questions about their diagnosis.  It was good that Daddy was there because my car was at my house (after Uncle Dave/Aunt Deb drove it home for me).  The other two kids had been shuffled from the neighbor’s, to Ms. Shirley’s, to Aunt and Uncle.  They were dead asleep on the couches at Aunt Deb’s house when we got there.  They didn’t wake up at all while we put them in the truck, drove them home, and put them in their beds.  It sounds like they had an adventure unto themselves yesterday.

But the world has resolved itself and all of my little ducks are home and resting.  Eventhough Madie can’t play her soccer today, her brother still has baseball.  So it is time to get that part of the family up and moving so that they can get to their game!  Life has truly returned to normal.

Ben had a really cool adventure today involving . . . ?  Ben won’t let me blog about this one.  I asked him if I could take a picture of him so that I could put it up on my blog because it was so cool.  He said no.  He doesn’t want me to blog about it because when he goes to tell people about it they always say, “I know. I saw it on your mom’s blog.” He wants to share this news with everyone.  So you will just have to ask Ben yourself about the awesome adventure that he had today.