Corrie says thank you!

Corrie says "Thanks for praying for me! I am feeling much better!"

Her fever broke this morning, and she's been eating better and having fun playing with Daddy and Macky!

Pray for Corrie

Poor girly! Up crying a lot last night :(

The past several days she's been showing signs of having a tough time adjusting to the changes in our family. I've been praying for wisdom to see what is behind her difficult behavior...for the discernment to know when to discipline and when to give grace.

I thought the crying last night might have been attention-seeking, but this morning I knew it was more than that. Her cry was so sad and she felt hot. Then she threw up all over me.

Poor girly!

Please pray for her. Please pray for the rest of us too, as I expect to see Mac in a similar condition in a day or two. I have been far more wiped out than normal the past three days....enough for me to try (not so successfully) to take a nap in the afternoons, which is saying a lot because I rarely give up nap time productivity to sleep!

Davey & Mommy Date

Today a lady from church surprised me with a phone call. First of all, the more I get to know this lady, the more she makes me laugh. I do not believe she is trying to be funny - she just IS! I do not believe she even knows why I am laughing a lot of the time, but she laughs along anyway - and that just makes her even funnier to me! Wish you could meet her.

Anyway, she wanted to know if she could come by after work and take Mac & Corrie to her house for an hour or so to play with her grandson. He used to be in daycare, but his mom is no longer working and now he is missing being around other kids. 

"Well, if you are really gonna twist my arm..."

Are you kidding me? Of course I said yes! That is pretty much the witching hour around here, when all things start to fall apart before dinner. Yes, I think I might be able to spare them for an hour for the sake of her poor grandchild. 

Well, first I had to wake up Mac. He actually took a great nap today, and when I went into his room, I saw why. He was sleeping under his slide! 

Once Mac and Corrie were on their way, it was just me and this handsome little man:

                                

Wow. An unexpected evening for me and Davey to spend time together! How should we spend our time? The options seemed endless. We started out with a little laundry (wasn't as fun for Davey as he was in the baby bjorn carrier and it was really hard to bend over to get the clothes out of the washing machine without squashing him). 

Then I looked outside and thought, "You know what? We could go on a walk together!" The thought of being able to just stroll and enjoy the views of our neighborhood in a leisurely fashion sounded pretty amazing, especially since this was the scene the last time I tried to go on a walk:

The whole idea of tying the kids' push toys to ropes seemed like a good idea in my brain...one of those ideas that are great in theory (okay - not so great in theory) but horribly disastrous in real life. 

Our house is at the top of this hill, and it took us about 10 minutes just to get here at the bottom. Corrie's stroller kept tipping over, and you can't tell, but in the picture above, Mac's mouth is wide open because he is screaming at the top of his lungs. No reason, just screaming. Because he is outside and he can. (He screamed so much that some kids started screaming back at him from the house on the right. That's why he is looking back that way in the photo below!)

Anyway, the walk today was glorious. Davey slept sweetly on my chest and I just enjoyed that special time in the early evening when the sun is starting to set and making nice long shadows along the neighborhood. My thoughts turned to the book of Colossians and verses I had memorized a year ago. All of the sudden I just couldn't help thanking God over and over again for such a sweet, refreshing gift today. 

As I rounded the corner of 17th street to head home, I noticed my friend's kids playing outside their house down the street. I hadn't seen this friend in so many months...I haven't seen hardly any of my dear friends here in so many months! Davey and I decided to take a short detour and say hello. My friend invited us in and we had such a nice visit together. 

I headed back home thanking God again. By now the sun was setting, and the views from our hilltop neighborhood were beautiful. Here is the view from the top of our street - just before you get to our house. What a great date. 

Daddy daughter date

Hot chocolate coma

Poidy Paggs

This Christmas Ellis' Uncle gave Mac a fish tank. Ellis took Mac to WalMart to pick a fish for it, and they came home with two big goldfish. Guess how long it took for us to find the first one belly-up? About a day.

I had my concerns about the goldfish. They are smelly, make the tank way too dirty, and they were pretty big for the size tank we had. Well, when the first fish died, I thought maybe Mac wouldn't notice. One day he said, "mom, where's the other fish?" Ahhh, hmmm. Well, he's not there. "Oh, ok!" Phew! That was easy.

Mac decided to name the remaining fish "Pax," (don't ask me where that came from) and even though I didn't want Mac's fish to die, I also did not like having a brown smelly tank in our living room 2 days after I cleaned it! So, yeah, I guess I did want that fish to die.

Well, a few days ago, Pax died. The tank was so dirty I thought maybe Mac wouldn't even notice that there wasn't a fish in it, but yesterday he asked, "Mommy! Where's my fish?!!!!"

"Oh, well...I flushed him down the toilet. It was time for him to go back to the ocean!"

Mac seemed to think that was a pretty good deal for Pax. Besides, I told him that we would go and get a new fish. He said, super excitedly (and jumping up and down):

"Can we build a submarine and go underwater and get baby sharks?!!" I said, "Wow! That would be so fun! But, we are just going to go to WalMart instead."

Well, this morning Mac was asking again about his missing fish, so we decided to make the trek to WalMart. First, I needed to feed Davey. Here he was, passed out on the bed after his 2nd breakfast:

He was happy enough when I got him into his carseat though:

We got to the fish tank section and I noticed that there was not a single tank on display that did not have at least 2 or 3 dead fish floating in it. Mac and Corrie were both so excited to look at the fish. Corrie kept saying, "I need a squid, Mommy!" Sorry Corrie, but there are no squids for sale here today :(

I explained that she already has a fish (Dory), and that we were going to get a new one for Mac's tank. I decided to have Mac pick another Betta. They are cheap, live through almost anything, and it takes them a long time to make the water dirty (compared to a big gold fish).

I also let Mac pick out a new tank decoration: a sunken pirate ship! I wish you could have seen in person how excited he was about it, but this picture gives you a pretty good idea:

The first thing he did was show Davey:

We got home and got the fish tank ready - pirate ship and all. I kept asking Mac what his new fish's name was, and for a while he would say, "I don't know my fish's name, Mommy." And then, one time he said, matter-of-factly, "it's name is Poidy Paggs." Huh? Poi-dee Paggs? "Yes! It's name is Poidy Paggs." Okay, Mac! (We've just been calling it "Poidy" for short).

It's naptime now, but Mac is so excited to get up and look at his new fish and pirate ship some more. What a fun morning God has blessed us with.

Corrie Johns

Would not agree to play outside without her princess dress and wings!

Davey: Doing better!

Little guy is having, in my opinion, a near miraculous recovery! No doubt from all of your heart-felt prayers. Thank you!

Mac and Corrie have been sick with a pretty bad cold, which kept Mac up crying and coughing almost all night on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday night, Davey started to have trouble sleeping.  By Friday morning, little Davey's cry had changed dramatically with lots of wheezing, coughing and gagging. I was really concerned. I have never had a baby get so sick so young before...I was in new territory and did not know what to do. 

Thankfully, we were already scheduled to be at the doctor for my postpartum checkup that morning. Unfortunately, I would have to take all three sick kids along with me...not exactly the kind of ckeck-up you want your three sick little ones to join in on. Well, what could I do? I just loaded the kids in the car and went with it. I said, "Let's do it guys!" and pulled out of the driveway. The kids responded with crying and whining. Oh man. This was going to be interesting. 

When we arrived, God provided! Ellis was able to step out from his surgery rotation for a few minutes to take Mac and Corrie during my exam. (He kept them happy with pringles and beef jerky from his office). The nurses were more than happy to hold Davey for me :)

My checkup took a little longer than we expected, but overall the doctor said I am doing pretty good. However, by the time I got the kids back, they had all hit their limit. Now it was time for Davey's visit. They were able to squeeze us in for an appointment with a new doctor - one of Ellis' favorite colleagues. Too bad we did not give him the best impression! 

I was completely spent from a long, sleepless week with sick kids, and by now Mac was whining about everything, Corrie was sprawled out face-down (and snot-down) on the germ-infested doctor's office floor, and the Dr. was trying to listen Davey's breathing through all of the noise as Mac coughed right in his and Davey's face. "Well, at least no one is eating the paper off of the exam table yet." (Last week I heard a story about a kid doing that). 

The Doctor tried his best to talk really fast and finish the exam as quick as he could. From what I could gather through the crying, Davey had what seemed like a virus called RSV. It could get really serious, but right now it was not too bad. We needed to keep his head elevated, keep the tylenol in his system, and try and keep his airways clear with steamy showers, humidifiers and nose suction bulbs. And, lot's of prayers! 

So, anyway, that was last week and this weekend. But things really started to turn around last night. I went to try and feed Davey before bed, but instead of nursing, he wanted to interact and smile and laugh! What a sweet gift! His breathing sounded sooooo much better. Even though his brother and sister are still sick, he seems almost all the way better (except he still doesn't have his voice back yet...makes his cry sound pretty pitiful, but somehow really sweet in its own way). 

Pray for Davey

Sweet little guy is not feeling so good. :(

Super congested and a sad little barking cry and cough. Breaks your heart to hear!

Wish I could just snuggle him all day!

Thank You, Ellis

Mac: "Mommy look at these flowers!"

Me: "Yes, daddy got those flowers for mommy to tell mommy he loves her."

Mac: "Ooooh....yes."

(Pausing to think very hard)

"Can I drink the nectar out of them?"

That's Mac!

3 sets of buddies

My First Tea Party

Thank you for Inviting me to your tea party, Corrie!