Elf Yourself

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/43HOgDc3Mz5KJlkrY4WH

We just can't resist doing this each year. The boys get the biggest kick out of it and want to watch it over and over again! Andrew was hysterically laughing then quickly turned into either more laughing or sheer terror. I couldn't tell which!

Drawing on the Sweet Moments of Sickness

Are there sweet moments that come along with sickness? I've discovered that there are.

When I picked Jacob up from school yesterday, he wasn't acting like himself. He was being antagonistic and cried at the drop of a hat. At one point I asked, "Jacob, what is your problem today?" I just knew that there had to be more to it than just a bad attitude, which is very out of the norm for Jacob. Bursting into tears he sobbed, "Mommy, I don't feel good. My teeth hurt and my foot hurts." When Jacob gets sick, there are 2 things you can count on, his teeth will hurt and he will cry for no reason.

In the 6 minutes it took to drive home, he broke down. When we walked in the house, he said he wanted to lay down on the couch in the basement and go to sleep. He didn't want to eat, which is odd considering all he had was cereal for breakfast. Within 5 minutes he was sound asleep in the basement where he slept for almost 2 hours. He woke just as Andrew and Zachary laid down. The timing was perfect as I was able to give Jacob 100% of my attention while keeping him away from the other little guys.

When he awoke, the dreaded happened. He began to throw up. Oh, how a child hates that. My heart breaks as I watch it because I'm so helpless. Watching Jacob I'm silently praying that God would take it from him and give it to me. In this moment I'm seeing God's love me for. When God looked at mankind his heart broke watching our sufferings. Jesus wanted to take our place on the cross because He couldn't bear to see us in our natural state, broken. I can relate to Jesus at this moment and my heart is filled with such love for Him. Later as I reflected on the day with Jacob and my appreciation for Jesus, I realized what a sweet moment it actually was. Had my day just skipped along, would I have stopped to ponder God's deep love for me? Maybe, maybe not. Or was it only because I was watching my child suffer that I was able to recognize me as God's child suffering and relate His great love for me with my great love for my son. Then and only then did I shift my focus from my life and my circumstances to God and the bigger meaning of life?

As the day progressed, Jacob only got worse. I tucked him into bed at 5:00 and he slept until about 7:30. Later I told Jacob that our evening wasn't the same without him. There was a very big missing piece of our family. Jacob's symptoms are typical of any virus or flu, fever, vomiting, fatigue, you name it. The sweetest side of Jacob has emerged through this sickness. He is very endearing to me right now. Every time I'm tending to him, he says,"Mommy, I love you so much. You would die if you knew how much I love you." My heart melts. Watching him in a most vulnerable state, wishing so badly that I could trade places with him, my heart is so full of love for him.

Something I've learned recently and am just now understanding the wisdom of it. Steve is very positive. He always looks for the good in every situation. So watching Jacob go through this makes me pause to thank God that this is the worst of what we are dealing with regarding his health right now. Looking on the bright side, keeps me from having a poor me attitude. A thankful heart develops as I begin to look at the blessings that God has brought in the midst of trying times.

During the last 24 hours, I've had very tender moments with Jacob that I would not have had. I have had the opportunity to have special prayer times with him where we can cry out to God. I've had numerous sweet moments with Jacob that honestly I wouldn't trade for anything. Finally, I've had the opportunity to point back to God for Jacob.

Jacob asked me this morning why God allowed him to get sick if we prayed that he would remain healthy. Inside I smiled as I thought, "That is the question that adults struggle with, that Christians and non-Christians alike struggle with. Do you want me to go back to when sin entered the world and changed everything?" I answered, "Jacob, that is a great question and one that I'm glad you are wondering about." I tried to explain as briefly as I could that God doesn't promise us a perfect and happy life. But what he does promise is to never leave us nor forsake us. He also promises that in all things he will turn into good. I ended by saying, "Jacob, if you had not gotten sick, would you have prayed as much as you have? Would you have spent as much time thinking about God? Sometimes it is during the hardest times for us that we actually grow the closest to God. Usually it is when we are struggling that we realize we can't get through it without Him." I shared that I have gone through many things that were very difficult at the time, but when they were over, I was able to look back and see how I grew in my relationship with Christ and how my faith had increased.

Last night Jacob had perked up considerably. He was able to join us downstairs to watch football and eat a little soup. This morning he is in and out of feeling bad. At one point he told me he wished I could have this so that he wouldn't have it. I told him I would take it in a heartbeat. As I tucked him back into bed at 8:30 am, I could barely bring myself to leave his room. His face was so sweet, he was so vulnerable. He looked at me with the sweetest eyes telling me how much he loved me, then I noticed tears slowly rolling down his face. My heart was physically aching. I pray on Jacob's behalf that God provides him comfort and love that only He can offer.

Although, it is not fun to be sick or have a sick child, there are sweet moments from this experience that I will treasure up in my heart.

Steve wins the award for Best Husband of the Year!

I love my family dearly, more than I ever imagined possible. I am so grateful to be home with my kids during their young years. At the same time, they exhaust me and drain me daily. So my little shopping getaway this weekend was the perfect escape for me to be refreshed and rejuvenated. I had just enough time to relax and be renewed before heading back late Saturday night.

I went to Short Pump in Richmond, with my longtime friend, Kimberley (Blanchfield) Patterson. Kimberley and I have been friends since high school. However, I don't think we had seen each other in 6-7 years! Her family recently moved to Roanoake, which is about an hour and 45 minutes from us. Kimberley and I have so many things in common...we both have houses full of boys, we both grew up with houses full of girls, and we are very like minded about health issues. Kimberley holds a special place in my heart because she prayed for mine and Steve's salvation after attending our wedding. So I thank God that she prayed for us, because it played a huge role in our eternal salvation!

So a couple of months ago, Kimberley invited me for a weekend getaway shopping excursion. We have been counting down the days for months. We had such a wonderful time. Actually, it was everything I wanted it to be. We had so much time to catch up on each other's lives, we had meals without children, we slept in (well I did, Kimberley faithfully exercised), and we shopped all day long!

I would not have had the experience I had if Steve had not been so encouraging of me to go. He always encourages me to get out and take a break. I'm so grateful to him for that. I can't imagine not getting breaks. It is so nice to leave and know that he has everything under control. I honestly don't worry at all! He came home early Friday so I could get started on my weekend! So while I waited to meet up with Kimberley, I ran a few errands and got a head start on my Christmas shopping!

Friday morning we did have a scary start though. Steve came home from work at 9:30 am asking me to put peroxide in his ears saying he felt his body was fighting off something. I began praying immediately that God would keep his body healthy. The description of his symptoms sounded like the flu, so I was bracing myself to have to cancel my weekend! Even when he got home to relieve me he didn't feel great. But praise God, he remained healthy and ended up being fine!

Kimberley and I met up and started in on the 2 hour drive to Richmond. When we arrived, we settled in to the hotel then headed out to dinner and shopping. When the restaurant told us the wait was almost an hour, it was great to say, "Ok!" without worrying about kids melting down from hunger! We shopped while we waited then ended the evening with a long, leisurely dinner. How I loved having lengthy conversations that we were able to complete without being interrupted by sweet little voices and requests! How nice to sit through a meal without making trips to the restroom or cleaning up spills. Again, don't get me wrong, I love my family and cherish doing these things for them. But when I have a chance like I had, I really enjoy it!

Steve was tweeting throughout the night, which is how I discovered Andrew had pulled up to his knees for the first time!

Saturday morning I slept until almost 7, which is 2 hours past my normal wakeup time. I count that as sleeping in. I was just about to get up when I received a text from Steve that asked if I was still pretending to sleep :) After getting ready, I went down to breakfast then read a book while I waited on Kimberley to finish up her workout. I felt slightly guilty for not joining her, but that lasted but a brief moment.

Saturday we shopped until we dropped, literally! My legs hurt today! We shopped at Short Pump until 5:00 then headed to my favorite...Trader Joe's. We finished up there around 6:00 then headed to a 2nd mall until about 8:30 when we wrapped it up and headed home. The clerk at Trader Joe's thought I was crazy. I had 2 gigantic buggies full of food. My kids LOVE Trader Joe's. They love their cereals and snacks. I love their prices, customer service, smallness, and their natural/organic philosophies and products.

At one point on Saturday I was on the phone with Steve when Andrew began crawling for the first time. That just figures! 2 milestones on my first time away from that child! Sure enough today he is inch worming his way around. It is so stinking cute! He is most motivated for Steve's blackberry.

On my way home Saturday night I called Steve and that is when I really realized he deserved the Best Husband and Daddy Award! I thought that the weekend was going so smoothly for them, but he finally told me that he had a major catastrophe Saturday morning. Steve had decided (against my advice) to take all 3 kids to the soccer fields by himself. I've done it and it is hard, so I warned him against this. It is especially hard when you have to get 2 kids ready for an 8:00 am game while handling a baby! But Steve did it anyway! Evidently Andrew was horrible there. It was cold and he didn't want a blanket, so he just screamed the whole time. Then Jacob started melting down saying his feet were freezing and he didn't want to play in his game (extremely out of character). So here Steve is with a screaming baby in his arms, a 4 year old on a field by himself, and a 6 year old who is crying and won't play. They got home and Steve continued to have issues with Jacob. I think he was just missing me :) Here is why Steve deserves the award, he never told me about all of this until I was on my way home. He didn't want to ruin my trip. He wanted me to go and fully enjoy my time away rather than worrying about what was going on at home. And I did! I'm grateful for his good judgement. I would have been so worried about them! As the day progressed, things went better and he said they were awesome, no problems, and they had a good time. I think Steve was exhausted by the end of the night. The other reason Steve deserves the award is because he cleaned the house before I came home! It was just as clean as when I left. What a bonus!

Our boys LOVE hotels. There were so jealous that I was staying in a hotel. So the first thing they asked me this morning was to tell them all about the hotel. I told them about the great big bed, the delicious breakfast, and the heated pool with a fire pit. They said, "No fair!" When they saw my Trader Joe's bags, it was like Christmas morning. They were tearing into them, excitedly pulling out their favorite things. Zachary was thanking me and Jacob was telling me he loved me. Andrew was watching with a huge smile. We let Steve sleep in. In our house, that isn't very late, he joined us by about 7:30 I think!

Wonderfully refreshed, I am ready to handle the challenges of motherhood that await me for at least the next 6 months!

No training wheels for Zach!

Drew watching Zach's new accomplishment

He is doing it!

And he is off...

Zachary is officially riding with no training wheels! He is so incredibly excited and proud of himself.

Jacob was about Zachary's age, a little past 4, when he decided he wanted to take his training wheels off. Jacob decided he was ready when he learned that his best friend, Max, could ride with no training wheels. Once he realized that it was possible, there was no stopping him. He begged us for weeks to take them off before we finally said ok! Within 20 minutes he could ride a bike. He was extremely determined.

Knowing that Jacob could ride a bike at 4, made me realize that Zachary would be able to as well. However, Zachary had not yet come to this conclusion. So today while Jacob was in school and Andrew was napping, I asked Zachary if he would like me to take his training wheels off and teach him to ride a bike. He looked apprehensive at first, but I explained that it was just like his 2 wheel scooter.

So I got out a wrench and took them off. I was actually quite proud of myself for doing that. Normally, I would have asked Steve to do it without ever attempting it myself. It felt good to use a tool and accomplish what I had set out to do!

I got Zachary on the bike, I held the seat, and I told him to pedal as fast as he could. I explained that the faster you go, the easier it is to balance. I kept relating to his scooter. He said, "Yeah, when I go slow on my 2 wheel scooter, it tips, but when I go fast, I can balance." Our first run down the driveway, I realized he was able to balance quite well. So on the return trip, I let go without him knowing for about 10 seconds. When I stopped him, I told him I let go and he was doing it all by himself. He screamed with excitement. His eyes were sparkling and his smile could not have been bigger. He said, "I did it!!! I did it!!!"

So, I said, "Yes, you did it, and now you can do it longer all by yourself." So on this run, I gave him a push off and we went the entire length of the driveway all by himself. I was as shocked as he was. He jumped off his bike exclaiming, "I can't wait to show Andrew. I can't wait to show Jacob. I have to call Daddy! They will all be so proud of me."

It was time to get Jacob from school and I needed to get Andrew up from his nap. I knew that Zachary wanted to show Andrew. Although Andrew didn't understand the excitement or what was going on, I played along anyway. We ran up to Drew's room, and with much excitement, began telling him all about it. He looked totally confused by our exuberance. He was even more confused when we took him straight outside and plopped him down so he could watch Zachary ride.

When we picked Jacob up, Zachary told him his good news. Jacob's jaw dropped and he told Zachary he was so proud of him. It was really sweet to see Jacob showing Zachary excitement for him.

When we got home, Zachary took his first fall and went in the house crying. When he came back outside, Jacob said, "Zachary, that will happen a lot when you are learning. I still fall sometimes." A few minutes later, I heard a loud crash. I turned around to see Jacob had fallen off his bike. I realized he did it intentionally just to make Zachary feel better. He got up and said, "See Zachary, even I fall sometimes and I've been riding with no training wheels for a long time."

Nothing warms my heart more than to see virtues like these played out in my kids. I stop to thank God that they love each other and share in each others triumphs of life. And I pray they will always cheer each other on!

My Birthday Weekend

My birthday was Sunday. However, on Thursday I received an early birthday surprise when I arrived home from a dentist appt. I walked in the door and Jacob said I had a birthday surprise and I had 3 guesses. After my 3 guesses, he led me down to the basement to receive my surprise. When I opened my eyes, I found my parents there! They had come up for the weekend to surprise me for my birthday.

We had a great visit. The boys were ecstatic to have surprise visitors. Thankfully, I had cleaned on Wednesday :) Nannie and Paw-Paw got to see the boys' last soccer practices and games. The rest of the weekend, we just hung around the house and played.

Saturday we took Jacob and Zachary to see Nemo on Ice. We had planned to take Andrew as well. But when Nannie and Paw Paw showed up, we let them stay home with Andrew. Steve and I felt like we were on a date with just having the older 2. There were no diapers, diaper bags, and when we needed to get out of the car, it didn't take 5 minutes to get all the gear out! Nemo was great. The boys really enjoyed it! After stopping for pizza, we headed back home from Charlottesville, an hour away. When we got home, we let the boys stay up to watch some college football before calling it a night!

Sunday was my birthday. Since it was also daylight savings time, that would have been a great start to my birthday getting an extra hour of sleep. However, Andrew had other plans. No one told him we got an extra hour of sleep. I was in his room getting him up, when to my shock Steve arrived to start the day with me at the crack of dawn. He took over with Drew so I could get ready for church. The rest of the day, Steve went out of his way to be even more helpful than he already is. When we got home from church, he told me to go upstairs and go back to sleep...and I did! I laid Drew down, Steve took the other little guys downstairs to play, and I curled up in bed and went to sleep. It was so incredibly nice. I very rarely take naps! It was an even better nap than normal because we just bought these new micro fleece sheets from Costco that make you want to stay in bed! Later in the afternoon, I escaped for a little while to do some early Christmas shopping for the kids. It was a nice, relaxing birthday!

I'm so excited...I am going for a night away with a friend for some shopping, relaxing, and dining without children!! Steve will have all 3 by himself for the first time overnight. I'm sure they will have a great time!

Glad Steve is home!

Some brotherly competition

Is Drew starting to look like Steve now too? Will I never have one that looks like me??

Steve was away last week to Atlanta for some training classes for work. I had to have a positive mindset going into the long week since I knew I had no relief coming for many days! The boys were awesome though. They gave me no problems and it was a relatively easy week...except we missed Steve of course. By the end of the week, I was really ready for Steve to resume his wrestling with the boys because they were beginning to tackle me from behind when I wasn't expecting it. They had lots of pent up energy that needed to be worked out!

Saturday Steve played in a fundraising golf tournament for Jacob's school. So I had to take the boys by myself to their soccer games. What made this difficult was that the games were spaced an hour and a half apart and right in the middle of what should have been Andrew's morning nap. And it was raining. I looked ridiculous on the sidelines in the pouring down rain. Jacob was miserable, but he is a silent miserable. He just deals with stuff that is thrown his way, thankfully. But he was freezing and wet. Andrew was shielded in the stroller with this rainguard contraption and he finally fell asleep. When they finally called the game, Zachary started crying because he hates to be wet unless he is in the tub or a pool! I'm walking off the field loaded down with equipment and 3 drenched rats! We were so glad to get home and dried off. At that point I thought there was no way I could go back for Jacob's game. Thankfully, they cancelled his game! But I do feel bad for him because we have had 3 rained out weekends in a row!

Over the weekend Andrew started clapping and saying Yea while he is clapping. Today he tried to make a "so excited" face. But he still isn't crawling!! He is 11 months old tomorrow...so close to a year. Jacob and Zachary play with him constantly and bring him whatever he screams for. It is no wonder the baby has no motivation to move. They love to serve him and feel like helpers.

We are going to Disney next month with Grandma and Grandpa and the boys are incredibly excited. They have posted a countdown on the fridge and love to talk about! I can't wait to see their faces when we get there. Right now, they love to get on the computer to watch video clips of all the attractions. This is the most excited I've ever seen them for anything.

I do wonder how Zachary will ride anything since he is scared of all rides. At the Hess's Greenhouse yesterday, he squealed and begged me to stop the tire swing where Steve was pushing him. He was terrified!

Jacob is also getting excited about Christmas already. He loves seeing the decorations. He said he is more excited for Christmas than he has ever been before :) I hope he has many more years of being this excited!

We've got a fun week for the last week of October. Jacob has a field trip this week and his fall performance for school is tomorrow. Saturday we are taking the boys to see Nemo on Ice.

Happy Monday!

The reason behind the urgency to vaccinate for swine flu

Money...plain and simple. This vaccine has already generated billions! Yes, billions of dollars! The media coverage is driving me up the wall. Every time I turn on the news or open up the Internet, there is another "fear mongering" story urging everyone to run out and get vaccinated.



The urgency is increasing because for the first time, the public is balking. Everyone is not running out to get vaccinated because enough information was dispersed early on causing people to question the safety of this vaccine.



Just as in every area, the media is very slanted in their coverage. They don't ask key questions. Of the deaths reported for the flu, how many were vaccinated or given Tamiflu? Just a thought...if I were a reporter, I would want to know that! Also, what are the health conditions of those that have died? Often there are serious underlying medical conditions before coming down with the flu. Of those that died, did they even do a flu test to see if the virus was present?



There is an enormous amount of misinformation being reported right now. It is mind boggling how the facts and figures can be so misconstrued.



Even the CDC, who I don't really trust in their figures because of their ties to the vaccine industry, states that the swine flu has not mutated and is fairly mild. Talking with people who have had it, they feel it is no different than the regular flu.



Click on the Mercola blog link on the left side of the page to read his Special Swine Flu Update published today. He is responding to the 60 minutes segment aired last Sunday. I was curious because we watched that while waiting for Amazing Race to start. One very interesting thing I found was this:



http://www.mercola.com/article/swine-flu/Swine-Flu-Update-2.htm


"Interestingly, the 60 minutes segment acknowledges that many people born before 1950 have antibodies to the new H1N1 influenza and are naturally protected.


WAKE UP AMERICA, this is before ANY vaccine was available!


If influenza vaccines are so effective, then why don't they work to protect people that have been getting their flu shots all these years?


(There is a new Canadian study that suggests those who have gotten seasonal influenza vaccines in the past may be at greater risk for getting H1N1 swine flu. This information reinforces NVIC's call for a comparison of the long term health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children).


The answer is, of course, that vaccines do not offer long term immunity. Natural immunity is what you gain when you recover from influenza and natural immunity is what is protecting older Americans, who have recovered from exposure to H1N1 strains of influenza in the past.


What is unknown is whether the massive amount of vaccine exposure in the US population has critically weakened people's ability to mount an effective immune response to novel infections like H1N1.


It was discouraging to see 60 Minutes end their segment on H1N1 influenza vaccine with an encouragement to go to their website to find out where to get a swine flu vaccination..."



Another key point from his article...



"Nearly all of them, just like the CDC and mainstream media, use the statistic that 36,000 people die from the influenza every year. I actually wrote an article about this fallacy more than five years ago.
Interestingly that number has remained static as if carved into stone all these years.
However, the truth is that less than 1,000 people actually died from type A or type B influenza. The other 35,000 died from pneumonia. This is actually clearly listed on the CDC's own website, yet virtually everyone ignores this fact.



Dr. David Rosenthal, Director of Harvard University's Health Services, brings further clarity to this confusion.
Most of these so-called influenza deaths are in fact bacterial pneumonias -- not even viral pneumonias -- and secondary infections. Furthermore, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Academy shows that many of these deaths are a result of pneumonias acquired by patients taking stomach acid suppressing drugs.
So, for example, if we are to take the combined figure of influenza and pneumonia deaths during the flu season of 2001, and add a bit of spin to the figures, we are left believing that 62,034 people died from influenza.
The actual figures are 61,777 died from pneumonia and only 257 from influenza.
Even more amazing, in those 257 cases, only 18 were lab confirmed as positive for the influenza virus!
In my opinion, there's a vast difference between 257 deaths and 36,000 deaths from influenza..
A separate study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics for seasonal influenza seasons between 1979 and 2002 reveals that the range of annual influenza deaths were between 257 and 3,006, for an average of 1,348 influenza deaths per year.1
Again, nowhere near the 36,000 mortality mark that has been etched into stone by those who are advocating annual flu shots.
Although the loss of even a single life is tragic, I don't think anyone would look at these numbers and say that a mortality rate of less than 1,350 is cause to label influenza a "deadly disease" that requires mandatory influenza vaccination."



"The British Journal concluded that the only possible rationale for the CDC's complete disregard for scientific fact, even in face of independent research to discredit its statistics, is a public relations effort between the CDC and the vaccine manufacturer's campaigns to increase flu vaccination."





I could cut and paste everything, so I will stop. If you have any interest at all, I would encourage you to read this article. In my past experience with information that Dr. Mercola puts out, it is usually very accurate and way ahead of the curve in getting out.