A year ago....

It occurred to me this morning that it was a year ago today that Jenna ended up in the hospital for a week in the midst of us trying to get moved into our new house, my parents being here to help, and just plain chaos in our lives! I still look back & am so thankful that the doctors were able to diagnose Jenna's calcium problem & get it under control. What a scary time it was, but God saw us through each day & gave us the friends & family we needed when we needed it. He is so good!

And so, it was a year ago that we were also moving into our brand new house. Some days it doesn't seem possible that it's been a year, other days, it seems like we've been here for much longer! It's definitely looking like it's been lived in for a year, but then again there's the landscaping, or should I say lack of landscaping?? :) Ah, one of these years we'll get around to it!

Thanks to those of you that have been able to stop in for a visit (or 2, or 3...), and we hope many more of you will be able to come stay with us in the coming year! We love visitors, and it's always a motivator to get the house cleaned....

Thanks for reminiscing with me for a minute, now I've got to get back to "work"!

Junior

My friend Jen just posted a sweet post on her blog about our dear friend Junior who went home to be with the Lord today. (I stole the picture above from her blog: www.potterwonderfullife.blogspot.com) I am so saddened by the news, and could hardly even talk to tell the girls about it. He was supposed to go in & have heart surgery today, and when they opened him up discovered that their diagnosis was wrong, and that he desperately needed a heart transplant. He ended up not making it through the day, and now he is in Heaven with his Lord & Savior!

Words can't even describe what Junior and his mom Pat mean to us! They are dear friends of ours from Fort Wayne, and they LOVED our children (as well as all the children at our church) like their own. Before we moved to Alabama, Junior was ALWAYS available to watch our kids, and repeatedly told us he loved watching them, and some days seemed to beg to watch them if they hadn't been there in a week or so! And my kids loved Junior too! There was NEVER a tear shed when Junior was going to watch them. They loved the fact that he got on the floor with them & played whatever games they wanted. And he worked in the church nursery every Sunday, Wed. night, Tues. morning and whenever else he was needed. It seems every kid in church knew Junior, and loved him. Very few cried about being dropped off every week because they knew Junior was there & knew everyone's "routine".

Since moving to Alabama, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've said aloud "I sure could use Junior now!!!" And every time we've been back in Ft. Wayne, we've made a point of seeing him & his mom, Pat.

I am so sorry for Pat's loss, and would ask that you pray for her (& the rest of his family) in the days and weeks ahead. Junior lived with her, and took care of so many things for her. I can't even imagine what she will do without him. Pat, or "Miss Pat" as all the kids from Cubbies knew her, is such a loving, Godly woman, and would do anything for you. We love you, Pat!

We will miss you, Junior!

Jenna lost her 1st tooth!

When Jenna got home from school today she wanted to eat an apple. She had a bottom front tooth that has been loose for about a week now, and she is so anxious for it to come out. So, after eating on the apple for a while she begged me to pull it. I gave a quick tug and out it came! She is SO excited!! She put it under her pillow & is hoping the tooth fairy comes tonight. Speaking of which....I'd better get off here and get some "work" done!! :)

What's new...

For those of you that may not have heard, Harley Davidson is doing another big round of layoffs. Tom seems really nervous that he's going to lose his job this time around. We thought originally we were going to find out the 1st of September, but then they had a meeting the last of August, and now we won't find out until the end of September. Aaarrgghhh....I just want to know already. Some days I am fully prepared for this to happen, and other days, I have no idea what we'll do if it happens! I continually remind myself that God is in control and that HE will take care of us no matter what, so honestly, I haven't worried about it too much, but it is on my mind often.

And now for a few pictures from the weekend...

Swimming at some friends' pool Friday evening:

Trevin decided to try climbing the back deck stairs Mon. morning without help, and fell down 2 steps landing on his head. OUCH! But, he only cried for like 10 seconds after I picked him. I brought him inside & put him in his chair to get a wet cloth for his head and already he was smiling! His poor head looks horrible, though!

A few updates

Ok, so I realize I have a few things to update since the last post....
We all took our tamiflu, well, except Tom quit after a couple doses because he felt like that's what was making him throw up. And, after a quiet weekend around the house where Trevin & I escaped a couple times to get out of quarantine, everyone was back to their normal schedule by Tuesday. Jenna made it to school an entire week!

But, then the following Monday I got a call from the school around 11:15 letting me know Jenna was running a fever again, so I had to go pick her up. I took her straight to the dr's office and they said it must be the antibiotics she was on didn't heal the pneumonia, and that it had gotten worse. The doctor described it as a "bad" case since she could hear no air flow on one side of her lungs. So, she got a stronger prescription, and after missing another day of school, was back in the routine once again. As a side note, I just took her to her regular pediatrician this week for another follow-up to make sure the pneumonia was gone this time, and he said everything sounds great, so let's hope we're done being sick for a while!!!

Now, I want to go back & talk about the whole swine flu thing. Evidently down here the swine flue is going around like crazy. Somehow it's not on the national news anymore, which is just as well since it was sounding like a deadly thing. But anyways, from what I've been told, there is so much of it going around down here that the state has told dr.'s not to even send the tests in anymore, and just to treat those that test positive for type A. So, does this mean Mackenzie did test positive for swine flu? I'm still not sure of the answer to that, but she did test positive for type A flu and supposedly all those testing positive for type A are diagnosed as having swine flu. Luckily all she ever had as far as symptoms was a fever for a few hours and even that was low grade. The flu is still going around like crazy down here....all sorts of people from our church are sick, so I'm really hoping we got ours done & out of the way, and that we're safe since we've taken the medication for the flu!