Alphabitty Moments

Alphabitty Moments is brought to you by Mama Bear and the point is to remember the little things in life that count. "Whatever coaxes us out of hiding, to write, record, and express, is a revolutionary act. It says that we believe our lives count: our lives do count." ~SARK

Baby J has never had ice cream, so I will have to pass on him this week. I know that other people do one per kid, but I actually can't even think of what else to do. I will have to check everyone elses' out. Our first church softball practice is tonight and I am really excited. Hopefully I am not as terrible as I remember being...having a softball super-star husband doesn't help my complex out any. Happy Thursday everyone!

Happy Earth Day, Weight Gain, Prayer Needed

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Today is Earth Day and we like to celebrate it. Not the earth, we don't think that it has any special mystical power or significance other than that the Lord gave it to us to take care of and dwell on until He returns. And you know me. I love all things biodegradable, recyclable, and Earth-friendly. So, Earth Day is a great day to talk to the kids about things we can do to help preserve God's creation. I even had a great Dora book about Earth Day that Snug (who loves her...library DVDs have corrupted him) got in his Easter basket. However, the book is NO WHERE to be seen today. I even had #1 check at the library to see if we had accidentally returned it with the library books. Oh well.

Potato prints are always a hit. Take a potato, cut it in half, and carve a shape you want to print on each side.

Here is an up close. I score around the edge, about 1/4 inch. Then I kinda draw on top what I want and then carve away until I have the shape.

Snug painting the "ocean" on his paper plate.

Mother Hen and Little Miss E painting their "land". The paint is squirted onto things that would have hit the trash recycle bin. They are still headed there, but got one more use.

Do you like our Earths?

We also planted some 4 O'clocks today (flowers) in little pots with my friend Mindy and her daycare kids, but I forgot to take pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it. To see a picture of Snug last Earth Day, click here.

Baby J had a weight check (at home) today and he weighs 16 lbs 14 oz! That is up 7 oz from last week (and the week before, when he'd had no gain). Praise the Lord. We also think that he is beginning to recognize his name! YEAH

This is Kayleigh, and she is four days older than Baby J. She has never been home from the hospital because she was born three months early. She weighed 1 lb 1 oz and was 10.5 inches long. She has had a hard battle to live, and every time they are about to send her home, something else happens. I asked via Twitter for people to pray for her last week as she underwent a surgery that was going to allow her to be cared for at home. She was recovering nicely until last night.

You'll have to click here to get the specifics, but it appears that something during/after the surgery has made her brain dead. Before that she was growing (approaching 9 lbs) and batting at toys and reacting to everything around her. The picture above was on her blog a few days ago showing off the first thing her parents bought when they found out they were having a girl. It fits now.

Please pray that they will get to take this little girl home, and that they will have the strength to deal with everything that is going on. We know God can heal. Our family knows this firsthand.

Kayleigh's story was brought to my attention by my mom. My husband told me I was not allowed to read one more "sick baby" blog, but being that she and Baby J are so close in age, and that Snug was a preemie, it struck close to home for both of us. She has older siblings at home, her mom's name is Aimee and her dad is Adam.

Updates

My boys, along with probably 10,000 others wore orange today for Stellan. He is out of surgery, but have no additional updates at this time besides that it was long, and hard. #1 and I also wore orange, but we didn't get photographed. I look awfuler than awful having spent the day in bed. Daddy dressed the boys, didn't he do a nice job?

Next update...we think we know what we are going to do about a computer and after begging it, our current one is working...for now.

I am feeling much better after a day of rest, soup, and ibuprofen.

If you would like to see the 10,000 or so people wearing orange, go to www.mycharmingkids.net and scroll down until you see 10,000 some pictures :o) I don't know if mine made it yet or not.

NO COMPUTER

I have exactly 18 minutes left of battery on my computer. It is about dead for life. I got it to charge for a few minutes this morning as I really wanted to check on STELLAN. Please pray for him as he is on his way to surgery right now for a heart ablation. This is rarely done on infants and is very risky.
Please also pray for Kaleigh as she recovers from her surgery (same age as Baby J, has never been home from the hospital in her life). You can click her button on my sidebar for updates on her.
I think that is the hardest part about not having a computer/internet at my disposal right now...I have been praying for these babies, and Abby, and all the things that many of you mention in your blogs daily and I have NO way now to see what is happening, or how I can pray better.
I have TWITTER, and you can read that on my sidebar as I will be updating what is happening with us.
Today I have no voice as I am in bed sick with a really sore throat...so I am letting my fingers do my talking. Anyway, we are all wearing orange here today and praying for baby Stellan.
We are going to price out computers and find one we can afford (using our emergency fund, I know, maybe not technically an emergency) but it is really hard withouth the internet. We actually have to DRIVE and LOOK...but I am sick, so #1 will get to do it with kids in tow.
We use the internet to run our daycare, pay bills, donate money to missions, and communicate with family out of town and mirads of other things. We hope we find one quickly.

I'm So Not Cool

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.

I know I wrote this over the weekend, but some people thought it was funny so I thought I'd let other people laugh at with me as well, because now that I think about it, humor can be found. *sigh*



I am in the good state Michigan for the weekend as I had my last CILT* meeting before summer camp starts. The girls have one more meeting with the other leaders (one who will be completely done after that meeting, one who just started today) in May, but I think you will agree that I sit around and eat bon-bons have enough to do and really can't fit in another 5 hour trip one way with children in tow for a weekend where I leave them for 5+ hours with my mom who truly is a saint. Just can't. It was a good meeting, and I enjoy being with the girls. I am so sad to see my comrade in crime "retire" as we've had a few good summers together (were even campers and CILTS* together) and are good friends. However, the new comrade coming on is also a great person and I look very much forward to getting to know her better.

Anyway, my mom had come down last Tuesday to help with the kids as I was taking baby J to his appointment on Wednesday. She drove us up here, and then will return us tomorrow. I then had no car here with which to drive to my meeting. My dad was up at camp getting it ready for the summer, but told me I could use his really cool Suburban (which technically isn't his, it belongs where he used to work but he is still using it-legally, I assure you) to get to my meeting.

Well, I climbed up a flight of stairs up into the Suburban and discovered that that it had no gas. I was already running barely on time. I stopped at the gas station, went in and paid the lady, and then tried to pump the gas. Only I couldn't figure out how to get the gas cap off. I looked for about 10 minutes for some sort of fancy button to open it but had to call my dad. All I was supposed to do was push on it in a certain place and it would POP out. I can only imagine what the gas station attendant thought I was up to. Here I am with this B-E-A-U-tiful car and I can't seem to pump gas. I am so cool.

Next I had to think really hard about how I was to get to the meeting because I haven't driven it myself in about 3 years. I called and double checked with my mom, and confirmed that I do know how to get there. The radio was on, but I am not familiar with how everything works in that particular car and I didn't want to mess with it until...

...I tried to get onto the 696 exit and it was CLOSED. As in barricaded up. The radio still was on to something I didn't want to listen to and then the car started yelling at me "CONSTRUCTION AHEAD". Well no duh. So here I am stopped in the road so I don't go through a barricade, people swerving around me (there was another road to the side that was not closed, but was not the road I needed either) honking as the car yells "CONSTRUCTION AHEAD". So I turned on the other road. I looked very cool.

Pretty tired of the car yelling at me and whatever I was listening to under diress I started hitting buttons and everything got louder and worse. Some gangster music about "making love" was blaring and I immediatly worried about my 2 year old parrot son singing it in Sunday School tomorrow, when I realized he was not in the car. WHEW. But neither could I get it to turn off. After trying not to smash anything I was hitting wildly at the dashboard controls. I finally got it off. Then I realized along with it went my compass so when my mom and friend were trying to help me with directions I no longer knew which way I was headed. I bet I looked so cool.

After making several phone calls and discovering that at least three other roads that I could have taken to get where I was going were also CLOSED, I stopped at a small cafe to ask a local for directions. As I got out to go in, I forgot I wasn't in my van and all but fell on my face getting out of the Suburban. I am so cool.

I mentioned that I finally got the radio/large dashboard display to turn off...instead of shouting directions to me it made a funny 'sip sip sip' sound whenever I made a turn-something to do with the little GPS system in it, I'm sure.

I finally got some directions that would seem to work, but guess what? The road was closed. I know you are shocked. My mom looked on the internet at home as I drove over a median and went the wrong way on a one way street and she guided me through a neighborhood. Some people were flipping me off as I drove by because I looked so cool.

I finally made it to the meeting. Want to know why I KNOW I looked so cool? Because during one of the many turn-arounds with a car (that I don't normally drive and is way bigger than what I have) and as the car was yelling "WATCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS" as I backed up, two very cool looking gangster people drove up and looked at me over their steering wheel and bling and clearly looked impressed at my mad driving skills. Clearly I am so cool. Or not.

So what did I learn today?
1. That there is way too much "gangster" in the metro Detroit area for me.
2. Suburbans are too big for me.
3. I don't want a car that talks to me-ever.
4. I am not cool.

*Campers In Leadership Training