Can you believe Christmas is 16 days away?!

Christmas is my very favorite time of the year. I begin to get into the Christmas spirit sometime in September usually. But this year has been a little different. I’m STILL not in the Christmas spirit.

I’m trying, believe me. It’s just so hard when you’re as busy as we have been, with so many children, so many responsibilities, and so many commitments. It’s hard to relax. It’s hard to enjoy the little things, soak up the ambiance of Christmas in all the little places that you’ve always enjoyed in the past. I’m just going to have to make a better effort to consciously do it. Afterall, I only have 16 days left until it’s all over for another year.

On another note, Jesse only made it thirty minutes at school today before he threw up in his classroom. He hasn’t thrown up or complained of stomach issues since last Saturday, so I don’t know what’s going on. He’s been home all day now, still says he’s not feeling very well, but hasn’t been sick again. Ugh.

I had CPR and CPI (Crisis Prevention) training and certification yesterday and today. It was pretty good. I feel very good knowing I am now properly trained in CPR. I definitely feel like I learned a great deal today.

Well, I need to get my house cleaned up in the next two hours before I have to pick up Biggest Brother from school.

~audrey

Another hectic and stressful Saturday, followed by a busy Sunday, leaves me yearning for my sweet and faithful Monday.

I must give major props to my incredibly hot incredible husband. He has been unbelievable throughout the past month as we’ve all been adjusting to our new additions and all the challenges that have come with that. Daily, I find that the dishwasher has been emptied, there is a fresh trash bag in the trash can, the toddlers have new diapers/pull-ups on…all the things that he WOULD help me with in the past with lots and lots of nagging, but I’d have to ask or remind him a few times to get it done. He is my rock. He is strong when I am weak. He hears from the Lord when I’m too tired to even listen. He rubs my back at night without expecting anything in return…if you know what I mean! LOL!! 🙂 He has just been an awesome husband, partner, and friend and I wanted to give him much credit where credit is due. I love you Babe!

Today (Sunday) has been just about perfect. Church was without drama, which is always a good thing, but never guaranteed! We went over to my in-laws’ church to have lunch which was delicious and also without drama (seriously!)! Then we went home, put the little ones down for a nap, and Jesse and I jetted off to a birthday party for a little boy in his class. When we got home from the party, which was a TON of fun, Josh took Joshua out for a little while, just the two of them. I made dinner while the children played, we ate, and now everyone is in the living room watching America’s Funniest Videos before teeth brushing, jammies, and bed! I cannot believe tomorrow will be December 7. The SEVENTH! Christmas is 18 days away!!! YIKES!

I will end with this:

Someone gave me something anonymously this morning at church. It was a heavy paper bag containing a book and a jar. The jar was filled to the top with silver coins; nickles, dimes and quarters. The book was titled, “Christmas Jars.” I can’t wait to start the book tonight and tell you about it soon. Just another blessing in a very critical month for us. The jar contained almost $50 in change. Thank you Lord!

We were challenged this morning in church to DO THE WORK. Don’t just talk about God’s goodness and how much he loves to bless his people. BE A PART OF IT! Let your actions match your passions. SHOW them God, don’t just talk about Him. Yes, I’m preaching to myself. 🙂

Have a great week. Look for ways God can use you ‘in the marketplace’.

~audrey

I can’t give you details, but we’ve had some issues this week with physical aggression and Jesse has been the recipient of it. It is a big deal.

I am so torn.

Does my child even feel safe in his own house?

I can handle these issues all day long, but I’m not sure how much I can handle if it is all being directed at my children. This is exactly why we originally set a very young age limit on the foster children we were willing to accept into our home…yet we caved and accepted a ten year old. I can handle ‘little kid violence’. Hitting, throwing things, biting…it’s different when the person being mean to you is your size. But when they are TWICE your size and sleeping in the room next to yours, it’s scarey and intimidating.

Jesse was very sick about two years ago. For over a year, Jesse would get sick every 2-4 weeks with high fevers, diahrrea, vomiting, and stomach pains. He never ever went more than four weeks without getting sick. If someone around him had a cold, he’d end up with an extreme version of the same cold or virus and it would last for seven to ten days instead of a normal 3 or 4. After months and months of surgeries, procedures, blood tests, visits to specialists, etc, the only thing that was EVER found was that Jesse has some immune deficiences in his blood which cause him to get sick easier. They even gave him a booster shot of one of his vaccines because his blood work showed the vaccine didn’t work the first time. You know what happened after the booster shot?? A fever of 105 for six days!

It’s not celiac disease.

It’s not chrones disease.

It’s not leukemia.

He’s not allergic to a single thing.

All that could be found was the immune deficiencies in his blood.

Another thing that seemed to affect Jesse’s health was his environment. Jesse is a home body. He likes to be at home and he likes to be with family. For that year and a half or so, everytime we’d go out of town, even to grandparents’ houses, Jesse would have a fever within 24 hours. It was mind boggling to say the least.

Jesse’s health played a big part in our decision to homeschool him last year. The boys have been on Juice Plus+ for two years now, and I even refused Jesse’s four year old shots for about eight months to give his body more time to strengthen. Jesse has been healthy for over a year and a half now! I can’t even remember the last time someone puked in my house….until today.

The first day of Thanksgiving break (about 10 days ago) Jesse began having diahrrea. It was SO bad that his bottom was completely raw and he cried all the time for days because he hurt so bad. I gave him children’s pepto bismal around the clock (according to the directions of course) and it never really seemed to go away completely.

As I said in the beginning, this has been a stressful week for Jesse because of things that have happened in the last four or five days. Every night, Jesse tells me he doesn’t feel very well. This morning (saturday) he woke up with stomach cramps around 6:00am. By 6:30am he was hovered over the toilet vomitting.

He just wants to be held.

I called my mom to tell her, and her first response was, “Oh Audrey, he is stressed.”

My heart is breaking. I really think stress is causing his symptoms. I don’t know what to do.

I gave him some anti-nausea medicine and he hasn’t vomitted again.

We’re suppose to go to Jesse’s school this evening for caroling and the lighting of their Christmas tree. Jesse also has a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am under no dilusions that we will ever have ‘normal, perfect’ foster children in our home. Kids will be kids and these children will likely always have issues of some sort. But no mother in her right mind would be okay with taking someone into her home and then subjecting her own children to verbal and/or physical abuse by this person.

I am praying that the Lord heals Jesse and gives Josh and me wisdom as to what steps need to be taken. I do not know what will happen next.

Please pray for us.

~audrey

WOW, this week went by fast!

Overall, it’s been a great week…if you cut out Monday…yikes.

When I picked up Biggest Brother from school yesterday, he got in the car and said, “Mom (yes, he calls me Mom all the time now), some people at school asked me if I’m adopted (apparently they noticed we don’t have the same skin color), and I said no. Then they asked who you were, so I just told them you’re a friend. Is that okay? I don’t want them to know I’m a foster kid.”

“Yes, that is definitely okay.”

I can’t believe it’s already Friday again! This week has flown by and Christmas will be here before you know it. Then, all of a sudden, it will be 2010, January, a brand new year with spring just around the corner. Why does life speed up as we get older? This is when things should slow down so we can savor every sweet moment, every memory of our kids and loved ones, and all the fun things in life. Why does it go by so fast? Is it because we fill it to over flowing with activities, commitments and appointments? I wish I had been alive in the days when neighbors regularly ‘stopped by’ to say hello. I would invite them in for a glass of sweet tea and we’d talk for an hour. Then I’d say, “well, it’s already 5:00, why don’t you stay for dinner?” They would oblige because, afterall, they don’t have anything else planned. What a lovely time that must have been.

Okay, back to reality. I need to get a shower so we can go to the grocery store, stop by the church, be back at the house by lunch, and clean up the house before getting the boys from school because we have friends coming over for dessert and games tonight….FUN! 🙂 Busy, but fun!

Happy Happy Friday!!!

~audrey

Ughh!

I can’t stand it when I open the door to my house and it smells like I’m walking into a life size diaper genie!! GROSS!

Owen and Baby Girl both had ‘surprises’ for me first thing this morning and somehow the smell penetrated every room in the house.

I’m in the mood for some major cleaning today. Joshua and I got lots of school work done yesterday, so I think I’ll bust out the rubber gloves and heaven scented chemicals and get this place back to ‘nose-pleasing’ status.

I really don’t have much else to say for today, except I can’t believe tomorrow is already Friday again! This week flew by!

I got Jesse all excited and dressed up in his field trip shirt yesterday…for a field trip that apparently isn’t happening until December 10!! Ooops! 🙂

~audrey

Where There’s Smoke…There’s Fire.

Here’s another one: When it rains…It pours.

What a day we had yesterday.

What. A. Day.

By 7:30pm, I could hardly hold my eyes open.

It all started when I realized Baby Girl had spots on her skin that were bleeding because the eczema was getting so bad. She looked absolutely awful, so I had to assume she felt pretty bad too. I made an appointment to take her in yesterday morning.

I also HAD to take the van to the shop. The brakes were SO bad, the mechanic said he didn’t even know how our van was still STOPPING! We also needed a new belt and two new tires. However, with six children, doctor’s appointments, and two different schools to pick up from, there was no way around renting a vehicle while mine was in the shop. SOooo, I called Enterprise, and they picked me up! 🙂 They met us at the car place, picked us up, and took us back to Enterprise so I could sign the papers. Sounds pretty easy right? Wrong. When I walked into Enterprise, you would’ve thought I had just walked into an American Airlines ticket line and all their flights had just been cancelled. I waited for FORTY-FIVE minutes just to sign a paper and swipe my card…..with FOUR kids……so frustrating.

Then I rushed home, by now it was 9:40am and Baby Girl’s appointment was at 10! All I had to do was grab a few diapers and snacks and run back out the door. Suddenly I remembered that the appointment was at 11:00 and not 10:00, so I had a little while to get ready and pack up the kids. I always leave my bedroom door open when I’m in there, so I can hear the kids and keep an eye on them as well. I turned my flat iron on in my bathroom and began to smell something strange.

“Is my flat iron dying? It smells like something is burning.”

Do you ever do that? You think you smell something, so you stop for a second and breathe in through your nose several times to see if your mind is just playing tricks on you.

Nope, no tricks, something was burning.

As I opened the door into the kitchen, all I could see was smoke!! I knew this day would come. One of the toddlers had turned a burner on (I have a forty year old, avacado green, push button stove…very easy to tamper with). On the stove was a cookie sheet full of beautifully decorated Christmas cookies that we had made over the weekend. Sugar cookies and ginger bread men, all dressed with icing, sprinkles, gum drops, the works! Now, they were in flames, reduced to a giant pile of gray ash with colored edges, probably from the sugary sprinkles. Yes, my kitchen was officially on fire. I blew and blew and blew until the fire went out (yes, I do have a fire extinguisher, but for some reason, the thought never even entered my mind!?). Then I opened the window in the kitchen and ran out the back door with the charred cookie sheet. I looked over at the window and smoke was billowing out. “Oh please Jesus, don’t let anyone see the smoke and call the Fire Departement! I really don’t have time for firemen this morning!”

It was about 49 degrees outside, but I opened every window in the house, packed up the kids, and left for the doctor. I never did use my flat iron! Haha!

After spending TWO and HALF HOURS at the “doctor house”, as sweet Owen calls it, we found out poor Baby Girl has bronchitis, EXTREME eczema, and an ear infection. She’s now on antibiotics and oral steroids. They’re also referring her to a dermatologist. Hopefully she’ll improve quickly while on these meds.

When we finally got home, the house smelled like toasted marshmallows and my hair and clothes smelled like I’d been camping.

I picked both boys up from school, dropped my three at a friend’s house and took Biggest Brother and Four Year old to the dentist. We were there for an hour and a half. Baby Girl was very good and both boys got a perfect report from the dentist! 🙂

I had just enough time to pick up my kids from our friend’s house, pick up Josh, pick up OUR van from the shop, and drop the rental back at Enterprise…before grabbing fast food and heading to church for Christmas practice…….

Ahhhhhhh, now you see why I was exhausted!?

I slept GOOOOOD last night.

Moral of the story: If you want that nice woodsy smell but don’t have a wood burning fireplace…just set your kitchen on fire for a few minutes and the smell will last for weeks to come.

(DO NOT REALLY DO THIS…THERE ARE PLENTY OF CANDLES THAT WILL SAFELY SIMULATE THIS SMELL). HAHA!! It definitely could’ve been much worse.

This day cost me over $550.

And after all that, I’m still smiling! Remember my motto?

LAUGH IT OFF OR BE CONSUMED!

Happy Wednesday people! 23 Days until Christmas!!