A White Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009!

It has been a long time since we've had a white Christmas in Lawrence! This one makes up for them all. The terms "Winter weather advisory" and "blizzard conditions" do not even come close to what we encountered last night! By the time church let out around seven p.m., the snow was blowing so hard that we couldn't walk to our cars with our eyes open! My parents and my sister and her family came over from Overland Park last night just as it had begun to sleet. We were able to make it to church safely, and after a quick dinner, and a record-speed present opening, they headed home in the middle of the blizzard. Thankfully, everyone made it home safely.

We celebrated Urban Christmas on Wednesday night. It had rained all day...there was even thunder and lightning throughout the day. It's been a tradition that Santa Claus visits Mama and Papa's house and drops off presents in the trees and all around the yard. This weather didn't stop Santa! Instead, he was able to sneak into the house while we were eating dinner and leave a scavenger hunt for the children. They followed clues around the house, finding presents along the way, and eventually ended up in a twinkle-lit garage with a pinata! Needless to say, it was quite an experience that the children will not soon forget.

Some of the highlights included:

-Since we were snowed in today, we spent the day playing Mario Kart on the wii; digging for dinosaur bones; making Paperoni animals; putting together Molly's Fisher Price toys; building Lego Star Wars ships; playing Pokemon Diamond, Petz Nursery, and Tinkerbell on the DS; playing Guess Who and Connect Four by Four; eating leftovers, learning about our new Canon PowerShot camera; petting the FurReal Kitty and getting our own real kitty out of the Christmas tree; watching A Christmas Story marathon, and spending quality time together as a family!

-The stockings were full, but what was most memorable? Ben got a comb and some hair gel in his stocking this year. Grace got a loofah. Oh how times have changed.

-Molly got a boppy penguin (a penguin that bobbles back and forth). It is currently hidden in her closet, where it will remain until she can overcome her intense fear of this toy! The poor child is terrified.

- Brandon and I hid the presents in the trunk of the car this year. (Some of you may remember that we hid them in Molly-to-be's room last year and we pulled the door handle off!) Well, this year, it was not until 10:00 last night that we discovered that the trunk was frozen shut. After unfreezing the doors enough to pull the car into the garage, we poured pitcher after pitcher of steaming water onto the trunk. Eventually it opened, and we hurried to wrap presents until nearly midnight.

We are so thankful for all of the blessings in our lives. Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Gracie's debut

For those of you who don't know just yet....Gracie and I will be singing a duet in church on Sunday, December 27th. You are all invited! But if you cannot come or have your own church service to attend, here is a sneak peak - an impromptu late night kitchen performance - soon to be all over youtube I'm sure! I joked with Brandon that he needs to send it to JJ Heller, the writer/singer of "Your Hands". So, here goes...keep in mind that when we sing it in church, we will have a guitar player and a bass player accompanying us! Oh, and if you haven't already seen the blog post before this one, check it out...because Molly has quite a set of pipes as well!

Molly Finds Her Voice

We had an early morning today... Molly had to be at the hospital at 6:45 to get her tubes put in her ears. This followed a night where she was not allowed to eat after 1:00 a.m. Those of you who know Molly know that this does not necessarily jive with her agenda : ) So it was early and we were all a bit tired! Thank goodness grandma and grandpa had Ben and Grace over for a slumber party.
Everything went perfect. Molly was a model patient.
Here is a short video of Molly a few hours after her surgery... she has indeed found her voice!

A fun and festive weekend!

Friday night we had our church "young couples white elephant party" at Signs of Life Christian Bookstore in downtown Lawrence. I brought a white elephant...literally...an elephant that I painted white, stuck a bow on his head, and put him in a shiny silver bag...one that no one could resist. Brandon worked on his last minute gift: a scrapbook with pictures of our friends that were enhanced by faceinhole.com. I was pictured with Edward and Jacob from Twilight. Barry was a Teletubbie. Pictures ranged from Hannah Montana to the Jackson Five. Both of our gifts were stolen several times. What did we end up with? A statue of Beethoven and a faded t-shirt and some broken watches. It could have been worse. There was a rule that if you opened something that could be worn, you must put it on. Fortunately for you Barry, we did not get a great picture of you in your lingerie, so your pic will not make this blog post. Here is a picture of our friends Chris and Mark...you may recognize them as one of your favorite Christmas movie characters.

Saturday night we had our game night group over for an ornament exchange. We had great food that centered around the Christmas theme. We had oreo eggnogg, Santa's crack dip, Blitzen balls, Christmas kabobs, and much much more. We played a Christmas movie trivia game. We also got our kids together for a picture and vowed to do it each year as a tradition. I joked with Keri and Jeremy that next year they might have one to add to the mix. We'll see!

Today we had our Christmas Cantata at church. It was titled "Speak to Me". I've been a nervous wreck for weeks since I had a solo called "The Lion and the Lamb". My voice hasn't really been all that great since I had that cold last month, so I've been drinking lemon/honey tea to prepare! All was well, because according to Brandon, I "rocked it out"! I was so excited to share it with so many people! Sandra and Mike were there, as well as Uncle Aaron, and even our friend Melanie came to visit LHCC today. We all celebrated with lunch at our house afterwards.

The weekend ended with one minor bump in the road. We took Molly to First Med again tonight with what was diagnosed as her SIXTH ear infection. I will call the doctor tomorrow to make sure that we are still on for tubes on Wednesday now that she is on an antibiotic.

Brandon update

So it happened. Brandon finally went to the doctor. In fact, it had been so long that they had our previous address listed. I went along with him so I could tell them just how worried I am about these headaches. He has now had four within five days, all in the left temporal lobe and all extremely painful. The doctor threw out some possible scenarios, such as temporal arteritis (which usually occurs in men over age 50!) and some other things. Although my gut feeling is that he needs an MRI, I have to rely on the doctors...they know best. So Brandon had some bloodwork done on Tuesday. It came back yesterday with elevated levels of CRP. This could mean several things....an infection of some sort, too much protein in the liver, google it and you'll get a million "could-be"s. It could even be that he had too much Ibuprofin before the blood draw. So, we wait. Brandon is ibuprofin-free for a week and then he gets more bloodwork. Hopefully we will have some answers then. For now, he can have Imitrex for the pain. If we find that it was Ibuprofin, then we are back at square one. What is causing them and how can we fix them! We will keep you posted..on Brandon and on Molly! This weekend we have a few Christmas parties, the Christmas Cantata at church, and some other fun things, so watch for pics!

Listen up...

As most of you know, Molly has had five ear infections in the last few months and is not babbling. No, that's not the speech pathologist in me talking...it's the concerned mother. Molly does enjoy hearing her own voice. She says 'ahhhhh" and "ooohh" at the top of her lungs, but she just hasn't produced many consonants (which should begin to emerge at 3 to 6 months!). I knew Molly was behind, but we wanted to see if antibiotics would work with her ear infections, and we figured that she was busy working on her gross motor skills. (She is pulling herself up and scooting around furniture!)

Today we went to the ENT (Ear/Nose/Throat doc). Molly went through several hearing tests. Her favorite was in the sound booth, where she sat on my lap while the audiologist presented several pure tone sounds in one ear while lights and crazy stuffed animals were presented on the other side of the booth. Ideally, Molly was supposed to hear the sounds and turn her head. She did not. Molly continued to watch for the lights and the animals. Even when the lights and animals stopped, and the spoken words were presented, Molly did not turn her head. By now, I was more concerned. When the tympanograms came out flat, I knew she wasn't hearing us completely. The doc said both ears were full of fluid. She cannot hear spoken words in either ear. In the right ear, she hears only muffled voices, like she's under water and noises that are low frequency sounds. The left ear was more difficult to interpret. It appeared that she wasn't hearing anything at all, which seemed to baffle the ENT. Both eustachian tubes were "very small" and not allowing fluid to drain, even with the strongest antibiotics. The summary and recommendations?

Molly has a significant hearing loss. Tubes should restore all of her hearing in the right ear, and we'll just have to wait and see on the left ear. She's young. The tests could be wrong. We should talk to her in her right ear and "continue to use sign language" with her.

Tubes will be placed next Wednesday. We're all hoping and praying that Molly will hear our voices loud and clear right after the surgery!

Another night of mishaps and miracles....

YUCK.

A while ago, we blogged about a crazy night during which Brandon and I spilled red wine on the carpet, Molly was up all night, and a mouse was trapped out in our kitchen. Well, last night, combined with today...I think this beats it all.

Last night, all was well when we turned out the lights. At 1:30 a.m. Brandon woke up with a headache that he deemed "the worst pain of his life." Yes, the worst pain, not just headache of his life. He said this was much worse than breaking his hand a few years ago, or having a tombstone dropped on his head. (that's a story for another day) I, of course, ran for some Imitrex, assuming he was having his first migraine. (I'm such a pro) After that, paired with Ibuprofin, didn't work, I began to think the worst. As I watched Brandon endure the pain, even in tears at times, I began to think of all the things that could be wrong. I made the mistake of googling his symptoms only to find "aneurysm" "aneurysm" "aneurysm" everywhere! An hour went by, and his pain worsened. We debated about going to the emergency room. I thought about calling my friend Keri who lives near us, or my mother-in-law, who would have to drive across town. As I was debating this, Brandon fell asleep. By now, it was 3:00. I stayed awake until 5:30, which seemed like forever...watching him closely to make sure he was breathing. By six, I was exhausted. And then I realized something. In all this time that Brandon and I were awake, Molly had been sleeping. Molly finaly slept through the night! And Brandon and I were too awake to notice.

In the morning, Brandon's headache was gone. Our Sunday morning routine began as usual..when Ben came up the stairs complaining of a stomach ache. For the faint of heart, this is a warning. Turn back now. Sign out. For those of you that can handle it, read on.

In my 8 years as a mother, I have never had to clean up what I cleaned up this morning. Poor Ben. He made it to the bathroom, only to throw up right in front of the toilet. I asked him why he couldn't lean just a little bit more forward and he said "I don't want to touch the toilet to open it." But it was perfectly okay to regurgitate last night's burger from Spangles, pickles and all. As soon as this happened, he went to lay down in his room for awhile. We figured it was something he ate, so we wanted to wait and see if he was okay for church. Within 10 minutes, he christened the bathroom downstairs with something I can only describe as "unbearable". I immediately recognized the smell from back in 1994, when I came back from a mission trip only to be hospitalized with campylobacter jejuni - food poisoning! I had just finished cleaning the main bathroom, and now I had to clean the kids' bathroom. After Ben showered, he felt better. We thought it was over. We went to church. Ben threw up in the church bathroom and on the church floor. There were even pickles in the urinal! One of the church members was nice enough to mop up after us. I took Ben home, and he showered in our bathroom. You guessed it, our shower was a victim as well.

I went to choir practice. That same church member asked me if Ben had had pickles last night. He said "I've never seen whole pickles come right back up...or out!" Enough said on that.

Brandon stayed home with Ben, while the girls went to Grandma's. When I got home, Brandon informed me that not only did he deal with cleaning up Ben, and cleaning the bathroom, he also caught the much evasive mouse! And Brandon is known for fearing two things: bodily fluids and mice.

Now we are off to the Christmas program at church. Ben will stay home and someone else will take his line: "You know? I kind of miss old Reuben." Yes, yes, he will.