An anniversary to celebrate

Yesterday was a monumental one in our family. That's because a year ago yesterday, Ella had her last infantile spasm! Originally, there was some talk that if she could string together a year of seizure freedom, she might be able to have a trial off her only seizure medicine. As it is though, we have observed some less serious tics and other questionable focal-type seizures over the last year, so I believe she will stay on her med for now. It's okay with me, I guess, but I look forward to the day when she could possibly be off everything.

Ella is also taking multiple steps now, up to 13 at a time! She's a little wobbly and hurky jerky, but it is amazing to watch her do something that we weren't sure if or when she would ever be able to do. I'll try to get some video of it, but I never seem to have the camera in the same room where she decides to take off.

Jackson had his first t-ball game this morning. Chris, who is on his way to Atlanta to watch his Braves play my dad's Detroit Tigers and therefore couldn't be at our game, asked me on the phone who won. I couldn't say for sure. I get the distinct impression that the score doesn't really matter. They let every kid bat every inning. It seemed to me that the other team got more outs than our team did, so my guess would be that they won. I'm not sure Jackson really understands what's going on. On the way home, he asked me who those guys in the orange shirts were. I answered, "that was the other team, son. It was a game that you played, not a practice." "Oh, okay," he replied. At least he had fun and because the clouds were out, it wasn't too hot yet either, which made it more enjoyable for me too. Cooper was a bit grumpy on the exterior, enough that another parent noticed it and commented that he might have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but he too said he had a good time, better when Dear Linda showed up and gave him some attention. He still is mad that he can't play yet. Soon enough, big boy, soon enough. . .

I have finally gotten the duplex mostly cleared out of the multitudes of things that were left behind when our most recent renters skipped town back in April. We only got legal possession back a couple of weeks ago. I sold a bit of the stuff, but mostly I just donated it. There were some fairly nice items, but it was a good exercise in letting things go because I didn't really need any more stuff in my house. Our church runs the Potter's House Thrift in Fayetteville, and they came right to the property and helped me carry about half a truck's worth of stuff out of the place. I have no idea how much of a value to assign for tax purposes, but the driver told me to come up with a number and double it because most of the time people undervalue their things; he said that they get a lot of garbage but that the stuff he saw wasn't garbage and thanked me.
I've had a couple of potential renters in there to look at it over the last week, even though there's a little more work to do. I even had one family look at it on two separate occasions and take an application, saying that they would mail it right back. I never know for sure if they are interested and have even had one lady flake out AFTER returning the app, so I can't be certain, but we may just have someone in there by the beginning of next month. We'll see. . .

We'll the baby girl has decided that she is done napping, and since I'm the only parent she's got here, I guess I better go get her.

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A grab bag of info and funnies and prayer requests and praises--something for everyone

It's the middle of the night, and I should be in bed, but I just wanted to pop in and tell you that, yes, I am alive and do still have plans to be a regular blogger . . . it's just that life is so full right now that it's hard to stop and write about it.

Currently, I am working nearly full time between the hospital and the first aid stand at the minor league ballpark. I am also trying to get the duplex ready to be rented (again)*, and because I'm crazy I am having a very informal garage (which-is-actually-indoors-because-ain't-no-way-I'm-sitting-out-in-the-sun-all-day) sale at our rental property tomorrow. Knowing that people like to be out early, I committed to being there at 8 a.m., not realizing that the ballgame would go into extra innings and that I wouldn't get home till midnight tonight. And not thinking that I wouldn't have anywhere to get change until the banks open tomorrow, which is a full 30 minutes after I am supposed to start the sale. I am literally going to have people open the cabinets of the kitchen, go in the closets, etc. and shop for anything they might want. It is exciting to think that I might be able to get rid of some of that stuff left in there and make a little money in the process. I only hope that people will come and offer to buy things and make it worth my while. I feel like I've been gone from home and away from my kids so much lately. It kind of stinks actually. Anyway, whatever is leftover will be donated to our church's thrift store ministry. If I have more than can fit in my van, I am probably going to have them bring their truck to haul it off.

*Our renters left in the wee hours of the night some time back in April but because they didn't leave notice, and have not returned any of our efforts to contact them, we had to wait to take legal possession until the unit was considered "abandoned by failure to pay utilities" which took until last week. What a mess!

Jackson has started playing t-ball this week. He seems to be one of the youngest on his team and perhaps the least experienced as well, but he is having such a good time regardless. I really enjoy watching him interact with the coaches and get tickled when he yells, "Hi Mommy!!" from the outfield. Cooper went to the first practice and promptly declared that he was "a big boy" and was therefore going to go play baseball too. Kills me that he can't play yet, but I'm gonna blink and his turn will be here. I bought a glove (or as Coop calls it a "helmet"--he's in the ballpark anyway :) for each of them, and Cooper loves his so much that he's keeping it with him to sleep at night.

I wanted to share a funny story from a few weeks ago. I had picked up Jackson from school and decided that I better stop at the grocery store on the way home to get some milk and other necessities for dinner. This was when it first started feeling like summer, so it was quite warm. As I got out of my van to go inside, I noticed that a car a few spots away from us in the parking lot had one of those infant carrier carseats in it--you know the kind that almost always have a baby in them; there was no one around and the car was off, and I just didn't feel right about leaving without knowing for sure that a child wasn't in there. But then again, I didn't want to be all Nosy McBusybody either. So, I had the bright idea of sending Jackson over there instead. Always happy to be a good helper, he dutifully walked up to the car, put his face right up against the window, and assessed the situation. Upon completing his task, he promptly turned around and shouted back across the parking lot to me, "There's no baby in here, Mom!" Hmm, I guess I need to work with him on the finer nuances of being discreet.

June 15th came and went this week, and I had a twinge that the date had some special significance to me. I just realized this afternoon that it was the day Ella was admitted to Arkansas Children's last year for what ended up being a 9+ day hospital stay (wherein she was diagnosed with infantile spasms blah blah blah). We were sustained by many prayers and notes of encouragement during that time, and especially so by the amazing Felios and McKelvys who brought us meals and washed our clothes and sat with us as the doctors told us what was going on and lent us phones and more. Our dear friend Page McKelvy is herself in the hospital this week, after undergoing major back surgery to correct what the doctors called a "false joint" in her spine. It had developed over time as a result of a paralyzing injury sustained in a car wreck when she was a teenager. She now has more pins and plates in her body than I can imagine, and she is understandably in a lot of pain from it all. Also, she will be undergoing rehab to get her strength back, which is no easy task. Would you pray for her with me? If you'd like to follow her progress, her husband Kevin started a blog that can be found here.

After many weeks of effort, Chris is finally getting some calls about scheduling job interviews. He's already had one this week and has another on Tuesday. So that's a praise and a prayer request all wrapped into one. Please pray for favor with the interviewers and that God would give Chris insight as to what direction he is supposed to go next.

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Updating you on my kiddos

ETA: This was written over the weekend, but I couldn't get it to post on my phone. So here it is a few days later. Forgive me for not editing it to real time.


I have been a bad blogger the last couple of months. I'm okay with that, actually, because I know it's due to the fact I've been busy, but I am (perhaps naively?) hoping that the much anticipated arrival of the summer vacation next week might indeed BE a vacation from the busy-ness, at least somewhat.

Jackson has one more day of school for the year. On Monday. Thanks for that, snow days! :) A few weeks ago, I started to get it in my head that yesterday was the last day, and i think it's because his class had its end of the year program last night. And oh my word, it was precious! There was a barn theme to most of the songs, so it follows that Jackson was a cow--when he wasn't acting as assistant director that is :). There was a sweet video from the year, that we all got a copy of thankfully, and that Jackson was happy to narrate for us. "That's so-and-so, I try to stay away from him because he hits me sometimes" or "that's such-and-such, sometimes she makes my nose smell bad." I mostly was shushing him during that part as you can imagine. All of his grandparents were there for him which was awesome, and even Aunt Kristin and Uncle Shawn made it in from Little Rock.

I'm so proud of J and all that he's accomplished this year. I can hardly believe the skills he has and his understanding of the way the world works. He is totally ready for kindergarten now, and just two years ago I remember wondering how he'd EVER be. It's pretty amazing. I'm so thankful for the opportunity and for his wonderful teachers.

Cooper cannot wait for school. He's been home with me all semester because we weren't sure how it would work to have all three kids in three different schools in three different cities. I'm kinda sad that that's the decision we had to make, and I think he and I would probably both have benefitted from it for different reasons :), but we have had some good times together. And I've seen some really great progress in him too. He's becoming quite imaginative and has started to have a little bit of a memory-- certainly not about discipline or consequences of course :). He is really into Spiderman now, even says he's gonna marry him when he grows up, which is hilarious to me. He is a potty-trained champ, has never had an accident overnight, and if I could just get rid of that pesky gap between the bowl and the seat, he'd be set in the bathroom too. He says things like "where was are you, Mom, I lost you!" and "can I have a piece of your coke?", and he never has fewer than four bruises on his knees and shins from all the adventures he gets into. Not to mention the scratches from the dog, who must protect himself from all Cooper's "love."

Ella is probably going to have tubes put in her ears soon. She's been treated for ear infections on and off since September, and she has yet to pass a hearing test in her left ear on five or six separate occasions probably due to a chronic fluid build up more than an actual neurological loss--we are hopeful anyway. But we've gotta get it resolved because it is not ethical for a child to receive speech therapy if she cannot hear it, so we run the risk of having her speech funding halted until we do. And she only started with her full time speech therapist two weeks ago because it took that long to get her permanent funding as it is, though she had been at the school for six weeks by then. I'm really trying to avoid any more delays in her treatment if I can. She is doing so well in school, and her progress is measurable even after only two months. So proud of her!

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